Seven Summers

We have braced for the flood of wedding vow promises – for better or worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health – and emerged from each deluge gasping and holding tight.

We did not begin with any naive illusion of ease, but we did underestimate the possibility of growing such strength.

Perhaps because, as with parenting (or indeed anything involving work and potential hardship), there are plenty of voices saying, “Oh, just wait…just wait until ____!”

Just wait until it’s been 20 or 30 or 40 years.

Just wait until it’s “really hard”.

No one says, “Just wait… one day you’ll love them even more deeply than you do now.”

But what would marriages look like if we did speak of them that way? What if there were more voices saying, “Keep holding. It’s worth it.”?

Here is to the continued hold. Here is to love that doesn’t give up. Here is to facing each torrent together.

Happy anniversary, my Love. I love you more now than I did seven summers ago.