Our 10 years
10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, 10 years.
Dearest,
On this, our 10th anniversary, I decided to try to put into words what our decade has meant to me.
This was, in some ways, the easiest thing to do and in others the hardest. So much has changed for us. We have grown so much. Our life together started while I was out with my friends and I came across a beautiful woman. I knew even then that you were a very special woman. Who would have thought that stepping on a shoe would have ended in a marriage that has grown into more than my heart could have imagined. Little did I realize when I stepped on your shoe that it would also come to mean that we would step into a lifetime of memories. Life only became better for me when you answered my dreams and said YES to the words “Will you marry me?” It was at that moment I knew we would become (or should I say we became), in my eyes, the perfect couple. Now that we have been together for 10 years, I must say that it has been a life of love and wonder.
10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, 10 years. When I am around you, all of these specific moments in time seem to roll together. I know that they are different, at least according to the calendar. However, in my heart, they are one. You see, I have been lucky enough to steal billions of 10 second glances, to hear millions of 10 minute conversations, to feel thousands of 10 hour embraces, to enjoy hundreds of 10 continually cycling days, and to live one 10 year of love and wonder. 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, 10 years, what better way to explain our life together.
10 seconds:
I have stolen billions of 10 second glances. Glances that make me smile ever time. There are the 10 second glances when I look at you while you sleep and think how lucky I am. There are the 10 second glances when I look at you when we are sitting by each other in the car, at the movies, on a plane, in our bed, on a beach. There are 10 second glances while we were standing beside a baby crib newly filled, looking at our first house through the newly framed walls, looking at your face during our wedding, looking at your face over and over again in the photo albums that I pull out when you are asleep. There are the 10 second glances when we are dancing cheek to cheek, and laying side by side. My 10 second glances started when I stepped on your shoe, and they have never stopped. They may only be a fraction of time, but they add up to billions of memories. They are part of the minutes of our lives.
10 minutes:
I have heard millions of 10-minute conversations. Conversations that allowed me to melt into your hand at one moment, and laugh in another. There have been the 10 minute conversations while we walked around the Plaza, the KU campus, and our neighborhood. The 10 minute conversations on Massachusetts’s beaches and walks to Mystic. The 10 minute conversations that have touched on our past, our present and our future. The 10 minute conversations about retiring early and living forever, about little girl pony tails and big girl dreams. 10 minute conversations about our joys and aspirations, our needs and wants, and our gratefulness. Conversations about my gratefulness that you are part of my life. These, and so many others, make up the millions of 10 minute conversations that caused us to grow stronger, and more in love every day. They are part of the hours of our lives.
10 hours:
I have felt thousands of 10 hour embraces. 10 hour embraces that started before our wedding, through our wedding, and into our lives. 10 hour embraces when I wanted to hold you because the wind was to cold, and times when I just “wanted” to hold you. 10 hour embraces that remind me of the words “Well darling.” 10 hour embraces before bedtime, on our honeymoon, our vacations. Our 10 hour embraces after Monica was born, and then again after Priya. 10 hours of embraces that not only make me think of the past, but make me look forward to our future. We may have had a thousand 10 hour embraces, but I look forward to the thousands more. They are part of the days of our lives.
10 days:
I have enjoyed hundreds of 10 continually cycling days. 10 continually cycling, ever moving, ever changing, ever entertaining days. There have been constant adjustments, and constant pleasures. There have been 10 continually cycling days that have included times that we have been walking tall, to crawling out of bedrooms in fear that our little one will wake up. There have been 10 continually cycling days where time has stood still because of a snow storm that lasted forever, to weekends that disappear as soon as they start, to trips to see family and friends, to evenings snuggled up beside each other hoping to have a quiet night. We have enjoyed hundreds of days. Hundreds of 10 days that are continually cycling. They are part of the years of our lives.
10 years:
We have lived one 10 year of love of wonder. The past ten years has brought a flood of memories that include the following in no particular order; Jimmy’s Jigger, wedding days times three (don’t forget Hawaii), 1-4-3 and 7-3-6, our honeymoon, anniversary time and Bed & Breakfast, our quick one ringers to say, “I Love You,” Hershey bars on windshields, our little girls, Christmas tree ornaments, Townhouses, Connecticut snow storms, holding hands, quick kisses, a Mazda truck at a rodeo, a Mazda car in a hurricane, moving and relocating, moving and growing, new years and new things, my graduation, many birthdays, MU-KU basketball games, glances, conversations, and embraces. 10 beautiful years of love and wonder. This is our life.
Every day since October 12, 1990, we have shared the seconds, the minutes, the hours and days that formed our lives. We have shared 10 years of love. Over the past few weeks, I have looked at all of these moments. I have cried. I have laughed. I have smiled. I have dreamed. I still see myself as that young kid that stepped on a beautiful girl’s shoes, but now I also see myself as a husband to a very special wife. If our future is even a tenth of what our past has been, then I cannot wait for the next 100 years.
10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, 10 years. For me, it is all in the perception of time. The calendar tells me there have been 3650 days since we have been married, but my heart tells me there has only been one moment, our life together.
I love you.
Michael
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