Nine Years

My thoughts have turned to this subject often over the past several months, knowing August 17th would come eventually. While the world's views of this occasion and journey only include an "until death do you part" attitude, where it is believed that everyday should be blissful, with parties and skipping through fields of flowers, nine years has taught me much more.

I have concluded that our marriage is much like the ocean. Sometimes it's smooth, calm, and serene, too beautiful to speak a word or utter a sound, so consuming that you can hardly contain it, so magical that you cannot believe it is real or that you were lucky enough to be the one picked. Other times, a tempest is swelling and forming, dark clouds commence, claps of thunder rage against your little life raft, and you pray for dear life that you will survive the trial at hand, clinging to each other for support and faith.
Sometimes those tempests prove catastrophic in nature like that of a hurricane and you realize that the only way to survive is to turn to each other and Father-in-Heaven. Sometimes, you are the only one able to paddle in that little raft and it feels very heavy, as you go against the current, but you know that you must carry the other person, because he has always carried you when you were broken inside. Just when you are about to give up, because it is too hard, the storm breaks, the waves calm, the clouds part, and new hope is born, followed by the promise of a new day, sunshine, and a fresh start. While the weather and the patterns of the winds that come against us are uncertain, a few things remain constant: the ocean gives life to all, it is constant and ever-flowing, and our little life raft is eternal.

I choose you.

For the times you have carried me, both physically and spiritually, for the way you have inspired me to be better, to reach my potential, for the times you have loved me when I didn't love myself, for the way that you see through to my soul and see all that I can become, for the laughter, for the tears and sorrow, for the support, for the advice and wisdom, for the guidance, for your faith and testimony, for your strengths and weaknesses, for the trials and blessings, for the hard and unbearable times, as well as the amazingly magical times, for all of the love you have shown me, I thank you. I love you. And I choose you. Always.