Six Years.

When we first met, we were both so young and carefree. I may have only been 17 years old, but I knew that it was real, actual LOVE I felt for you in the moment I saw your cheeks flush when you looked at me and mine flared brightly in return. I knew it when our grins threatened to split our faces in two.

Oh, the journey towards peaceful love was long for us! It was bumpy and ungraceful and full of breathtaking pain. Yet, I could never convince myself to despair completely the loss of you. I would try and get my brain to tell my heart that it was really, truly over at times, but my heart would always respond with a stern and unflinching, "It is just beginning."

I was always too unsure of the future to spend much time daydreaming of it back then... I never really allowed myself to picture what life would be like with you when we shared the same roof or would have children of our own... I didn't want to let my heart go there before our outcome was more clear.

photo by Cameron Ingalls

With hindsight I see that, had I spent time dreaming of our future in those days, it would have done NO justice to the life we have together now. This, where we are now, is better than anything I could have dreamed up, longed for, worked towards, or even allowed myself to hope.

And here I am now, securely safe in your love, and dreaming of the future with you is one of my very favorite things to do!

I know that the best is yet to come, and that thought just floors me. How can we go up from such a high place? Your love is continually teaching me to hope and dream, it is continually making my heart larger and then filling up the new spaces.

Oh, how I love you. Happy Anniversary.