Significant Subtlety

I walked in the door this morning after dropping kids off at school. My husband greeted me with a smile and a loving demand to give him a kiss. I leaned in and as he wrapped me in his arms he whispered, "Happy Anniversary".

*Gasp*

Now it's not that I forgot about the signifigance of this day. Just last week I was chatting with a friend and the topic of marriage came up (as it often does). I casually mentioned that we'd be celebrating our 14th anniversary at the baseball field. My main squeeze would be coaching our 6 year old's team and this old ball and chain would be at an adjacent field, in the stands cheering on our 8 year old.

We had a great day despite the lack of a formal celebration. He worked, repaired, bargained, loaded, did some bids, sweat, drove, coached, diapered and provided. I cleaned, organized, laundered, answered phones, scheduled jobs, taxied kids around, cooked, helped with homework, cheered, diapered, and nurtured. But this is just the life we live. We are happily wrapped up in each other. Always.

There was no exchange of gifts. We stole kisses and hugs from one another a few times more than we usually do in a day. I left the game I was watching to take him a cold drink from the snack bar. He cleaned up the kitchen after a picnic-style dinner of buffalo wings and veggie sticks. (Not too romantic, but homemade none-the-less.)

Today we "celebrated" 14 blissful years of marriage in our minds and in our hearts. We pondered on the last 14 years in the quiet moments of the day. Our journey together has afforded us opportunities to witness miracles both big and small... 4 of those miracles bring us both frustrations and joy on a daily basis. (I'm not counting the dogs. They mainly bring frustrations. Well, for me, anyway.)

I am a lucky girl to have this man as my eternal companion. It's cliche but he really is my best friend. We laugh often. I think it's one of our favorite things to do together. We have our inside jokes. We kiss and hug in front of the kids. We date. We text love notes to eachother.

It's true that this blog post might be the most attention that's been paid to our 14th Anniversary. I grabbed the camera and had one of my miracles snap a picture of us real quick before going up to bed. The day might have passed without much fanfare. But that doesn't mean it didn't hold any less emotion, appreciation, love or excitement at the prospects of eternity than some of our past years have.

We're just 14 short years into forever. And I can't wait for what's to come.