Dear Elizabeth

Dear Elizabeth, 

A wise woman once told me that someday, not so very far away you will wish you could remember the high and low points in each year as you cross the threshold of your anniversary. You will wish you could remember each one and put a star by it, marking the events and achievements. Well, 13 will be hard to forget. It was a year where you looked back on the hardest days of your marriage to date. The last year and a half  have been the slow healing of a harsh and devastating blow. You have crawled on your hands and knees out of the darkest pit you've ever fallen in. There have been days that you slapped the hands that tried to lift you and days that you held onto them for dear life. Days, when those hands felt so hurt trying to hold you up and days you felt so hurt by expectations of those hands. Your 13th anniversary marks this journey. No cards or gifts were exchanged, no anticlimactic dinner at Outback Steakhouse or Applebee's marks it. No, and its fortunate because those things never make it to the blog. They are societal filler. Without planning it or discussing it, you and your love stripped away the trappings of society and just relaxed and rested placing no expectations or obligations on one another. This was the year both of you were blessed by your dear family. Your children sent you to your room where you laid on the bed talking and laughing together while they made you a romantic dinner. Their culinary skills may have been still emerging but the thought, heart and love that they poured on you was like an alabaster vial of nard. From the three courses, to the clean kitchen, their thoughtful, intentional blessing was indisputable. You and your husband giggled like little kids trying to be sure and kiss every time the little cooks and Maitre D peeked in to see how your romantic dinner was going and your heart was filled to the brim with love. I would say, here's the memory preserved for you in the blog just in case you ever forget but this was a special day. You'll never forget the night your kids made you a "Lady and the Tramp" dinner. You made no plans and fell into the lovely hands of the ones who love you most. Making happy memories.