Anniversaries

The thing about wedding anniversaries is...except for the 'biggies'--one, five, twenty-five, fifty...they're mostly only important to the folks directly involved. For the rest of the world, they're a shrug (and possibly a passing wonder if their fellow men and women marvel at their staying power.)

In the beginning, the bride is usually more enthusiastic about celebrating. And she's also soooo proud of their accomplishment. Look! We've been married three years! Or ten! Or fourteen!

Little do they know the future that awaits them if they stick it out. They don't know there will likely be a year or two they won't even be speaking to each other on the important day because they're arguing over something so stupid they can't remember what it was years later. There will be 'forgotten' anniversaries. And there will be some where the best they can do to celebrate is a snatched peanut butter sandwich in between wearily caring for several puking kids.

Some years they'll be too broke to do more than kiss and smile in commemoration. In a few rare, memorable instances, their kids might fix them a special dinner. And yet--if they stick it out--life together will roll on. Eventually, they'll grow to understand a simple dinner at the local steakhouse is quite all right.

Because that anniversary is really a private day to mark a personal accomplishment. It's when two people acknowledge they're doing just fine. They made the right decision all those years ago. And they'll keep on going.

On that day, they'll look back and maybe marvel they didn't kill each other off in the bad times--and inevitably, there were bad times. They'll smile when they remember the good times. And life will go on, but now they'll know how fragile that life together can be so they'll treasure it a bit more.

Today the hunk and I mark forty-six years. Impossible...we're not that old!

anny