Fourteen Rockin' Years

On this very day fourteen years ago I gave my heart away to the love of my life. At nineteen years young I became known as "Mrs.". Some would say far too young. For me it was perfection. If I could go back I wouldn't change a thing. The past fourteen years have been the best years of my life. Challenging? Sure. Frustrating? Sometimes. But the day I took my husbands last name I knew I had just been given the best gift. Partnership. Friendship. Intimacy. Love. Passion. (Not all of those every single day, mind you. That would just be unrealistic. Awesome, but unrealistic.)

My wedding certainly lived nothing up to my expectations. Not that I had grand material expectations (we were terribly poor at the time). I happen to be a pretty sentimentally private person, and a wedding is such a public display. From the dress to the decorations to the food. It's not really for the two of you...it's for everyone else attending.I absolutely despised being the main spectacle of the day. My wedding pictures prove it. My face is always plastered with an awkward grin. To do it again I would change everything. I would go complete nontraditional. I mean complete. Simple dress and barefoot. Instead of entering during "Pachabelle's Cannon" I would totally do a dance-in. Like the one that's so notorious on You-Tube. I would make it fun and not so staunch formal. I especially wouldn't attempt to go public in heels again. (First and last time I wore them.) And it would be short and sweet. With few people involved.

It's funny how when you're dating or first married you're overwhelmed with being "in love". Then the older you become, the more you realize what love truly is. It's a choice, not just a feeling. It isn't always about date nights, roses and lavish gifts. It's committing to that person through the good and the bad. The hard times and the dry spells where the "feeling" of new love isn't as strong. It's compromising and learning that your opinion doesn't always need to be voiced. Observing one another's weaknesses, yet allowing them room to bloom instead of trying to change them. Love is ever changing and evolving as you study and become what your spouse needs. It's more about giving and less about taking. It's about knowing at the end of the day you have a best friend to confide in with all your thoughts, feelings, dreams and fears. Marriage is a safe haven for a man and his wife as they walk through life together. It's almost sacred. No one completely knows me more than the man I wed. And I him. After fourteen years we've learned this much...but we've no doubt there will be much more yet to learn.

I truly am blessed to be married to the man I am. It's been a rockin' fourteen years. Lookin' forward to a whole lot more...