Today marks 24 years of marriage for Missus and I. It’s been an imperfect 24 years, but it has also been perfect, too. Imperfect in ways that are normal. We have not always agreed on everything, and we have not always made enough money to pay every bill or do everything we want to do. But somehow, we have always gotten by, and we have always gotten together to move forward. I say ‘somehow,’ but really, it comes down to the great and wonderful person that she is. I often do not know how she has accepted this life we have together, but she has. I mean, if anyone can see through my imposter syndrome, it is she. Two dozen years! Hard to believe! But I could not imagine those years with anyone else, or wanting a minute of my life moving forward without her. She is more than my best friend, lover, and soulmate. She is the better half of me. I’d be completely stuck without her. My life would be dull and colorless, and worse than all that, it would be completely without imagination.
So, to Missus, I say Thank You! You are my everything. We have accomplished plenty and overcome a lot together. I know sometimes it is difficult to figure out where we are going next, and there are external forces that affect all that. But the winds change, and time goes on, and we hunker down and carry on in a way that I think will overcome. We weather the storm together because in part, I believe in you. I believe in you because you are the strongest person I know. I want to believe in you because you are the most beautiful person I know, inside and out. In 24 years, you have only proven to me that I was right to choose you and only made me thankful that you chose me. As we move on, I am always mindful to guard your face from the headwinds. I hope patience pays off against those forces. Meanwhile, inside our home, I appreciate so much all that you have been doing lately, and how you have made the place more livable, and how you have made progress when I have been hardly available to help out with the hard-to-reach places. I want you to know I am grateful for all of it, and that I enjoy our home a lot more now for what you have done. You even tackled the plumbing under the sink!
I honestly don’t know what tomorrow holds. I only know that I want to hold you through it and every tomorrow to follow. You used to call me an old pair of comfy slippers. I come to appreciate that expression more and more each day and see you as a bit the same. But a the same time, you are also my crown jewels, and my comfy den, and my place by the hearth.
I want you to know that you are my everything. You are my best friend, my lover and my soulmate. I want you to know, after all of these years, I love you with all of my heart, and you are the only future I have. More than luck brought us together, and more than luck holds us. I love you!