Happy Anniversary!

Today is our twenty-first anniversary.  It's been a different sort of anniversary.  I'll probably always remember this one.  The others kind of blend together.  We don't do gifts or make a really big deal out of it.  We quietly mark it and the world goes on. 

This year we've celebrated it on two different continents.  He's in Australia and I'm here at home.  That makes any kind of unified celebration a bit tricky.  Our days and nights are out of whack.  It's was our anniversary much earlier for him that for me.  Halfway through the day yesterday he was wishing me happy anniversary.  Now, it's tomorrow for him.  Our anniversary is over in Australia but it's only half way through here. Was it a really long anniversary or a half anniversary? 

Either way it marks the end of another year and the beginning of another year.  Twenty one years, four children, two dogs, one guinea pig, an untold number of gold fish, eleven addresses, six states, one argument repeated in various versions over and over, an endless supply of patience and understanding, so much grace and, of course, love.

I think that sums up the important stuff.  I married the man of my dreams twenty-one years ago.  I married my best friend.  I married the only person I could imagine wanting to be around day in and day out.  I married the love of my life.  We've both grown and changed so much over the past twenty-one years.  Physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, spiritually.  We, literally and figuratively, are not the same people we were when we got married. 

But you know what?  Thinking about seeing him at the airport tomorrow makes my heart flutter and my palms get sweaty.  I'm actually second date, excited, nervous about it.  And if he asked me to marry him.  I'd say yes, in a heartbeat.