Ten Years, and Still Going Strong!

Scott and I have a very important anniversary approaching. May 7th will mark ten of the most wonderful years as husband and wife!!! I am so excited!! Obviously, we want to commemorate it in some special way, so I was tossing about some options. I suggested a while back, we get new wedding bands. That idea couldn't have been met with more opposition if I'd tried to rip his finger off with his old band.

Scott wears his ring daily, as he cuts tile, hangs siding, pours concrete, muds drywall, frames out closets, and anything else he does through the course of his day. Outside of two surgeries, my band has never left my finger; through cleaning and cooking, painting and sanding, hours of typing and dog walking, it has remained. Our bands look like they have endured ten years of hard labor.

But I wanted a symbol of our marriage that shined like the sun! I wanted everyone to notice our bands and recognize we were one. I wanted to wear a work of art as unique and beautiful as our relationship. I wanted something new like the newness I feel every day I wake up with him in my life.

Scott? Well, there's a story behind our bands. He shares it proudly and often, while I keep it a precious secret, stored deeply within my heart. As far as he's concerned, to replace our bands would, in some way, replace the story or alter the last ten years, recorded in every scratch and gouge on those simple silver bands. Who can argue with that? So, I didn't.

I did, however, spend a lot of time thinking about the peaks and valleys, trials and victories, successes and failures, smiles and tears, times of clarity and confusion we have experienced over our ten years together. Each moment has passed with this ring on my finger (or on Scott's chain). We have these tiny, uncomplicated journals of silver; records of an enormous, sometimes very complicated life together. We have done it far more ugly than these beat up tokens could ever express! But we have done it together. It's hard to believe all that can be found on something less than an inch in diameter. But there it is.

OK, so maybe a cruise.