Happy Anniversary!

One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII

By Pablo Neruda

Translated by Mark Eisner

I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,   

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:   

I love you as one loves certain obscure things,   

secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries   

the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,   

and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose   

from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,   

I love you directly without problems or pride:

I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,

except in this form in which I am not nor are you,   

so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,   

so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

HT: Poetry Foundation

Poem of the Week: Wedding Hymn

Wedding Hymn

By Sidney Lanier

Thou God, whose high, eternal Love

Is the only blue sky of our life,

Clear all the Heaven that bends above

The life-road of this man and wife.

May these two lives be but one note

In the world’s strange-sounding harmony,

Whose sacred music e’er shall float

Through every discord up to Thee.

As when from separate stars two beams

Unite to form one tender ray:

As when two sweet but shadowy dreams

Explain each other in the day:

So may these two dear hearts one light

Emit, and each interpret each.

Let an angel come and dwell tonight

In this dear double-heart, and teach.

HT: Poetry Foundation

And happy 29th anniversary to my Sweetie!

27 Years Ago Today

Sonnet 43

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

HT: Poetry Foundation

Happy 50th Anniversary!

To my Mom and Dad!

Thank you for your beautiful example of marriage as a relationship of faithful love and service, serving God, each other, and everyone you meet!

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday: Anniversary on Sugarloaf Mountain

Halfway up the mountain

The going gets steep!

Summit!

Poem of the Week: 25th Anniversary

  Don't Go Far Off

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

Pablo Neruda

 

HT: Poem Hunter

Happy Anniversary!

 24 years! 

Can you believe it?!

Still smiling.

Still cracking each other up nearly a quarter of a century later...

So happy we got to get married young (we were both 20)!

So glad we get to grow old(er) together!

Would You Believe

They would let these two kids get married???

But they did, 21 years ago today!!

We've now been married more years than not!








Here are 21 things I like about being married to you:

1. You taught me to pun (everyone else might not be so happy, but I am).

2. You make the bed.

3. You volunteered to be the "Nighttime Parent." That should count as 15 things right there.

4. We talk about real stuff.

5. We talk about silly stuff.

6.My opinion is important to you.

7. You let me know that my opinion is important to you.

8. You pray with me.

9. You give me beautiful children.

10. You like my cooking.

11. You thank me for cooking, even when I do it every day.

12. You notice when I clean the house.

13. You don't notice when I don't clean the house.

14. You juggle.

15. You read to me (should count as another ten points as least).

16. You watch Jane Austen movies and Godzilla movies.

17. You chart.

18. You still think I'm beautiful.

19. You notice my hair.

20. You are fun to smooch (wink, wink).

21. It's like a slumber party every night.

The Big Trip

We're back! We had a fantastic time in New Orleans!

We stayed with our friend Fr. Mark. He had mentioned that southern architecture was more... elegant than we were used to. Well, yes. This first picture is the seminary where he lives (and we stayed).



We toured the entire city! This is the Cathedral in Jackson Square (the first place I prayed for the Emperor!). It's dedicated to St. Louis, one of my favorite saints.
And we had begneits at the Cafe Du Monde!

We also saw some of the more rural areas. Really remarkably beautiful. Best of all was this tree.


You can take the home schooler away from home, but... Here is Chalmette Battlefield - the site of the Battle of New Orleans, the last battle of the War of 1812! There really is nothing like touring historical places with your own private historian. Fr. Mark's doctorate is in Church History, but most of his other degrees are in secular history. For one thing, we knew to take the picture with this cannon instead of the other anachronistic Civil War cannons. Also, when talking cannons with a priest historian, the opportunities for puns are fantastic! (He's lucky he wasn't a canon lawyer).

Back at the ranch...
The kids had a wonderful time with Mumpy and Angel. Best of all, Tio came and recruited them to play soccer for Spain!

And the Zoomlians loved the masks we found for them in the French Quarter!

Happy Anniversary!

We were both 20 at our wedding...
and that was 20 years ago!!! Half our lives!

I've been thinking about what I would tell those kids, if I could reach back two decades.

To the kid in white, I would say, "You picked the right guy: treasure him!"

To the kid in gray: "You are amazing! And you are going to be far more amazing than you can imagine right now."

I think a lot of our friends and relatives at the wedding were more nervous than we were. How could we know when we were so young?

Sometimes you just know. I didn't believe in love at first sight before I met the Emperor. I think God thinks that's funny. People say that something "rocked their world." Ha! After meeting him, I could never be the same. It took quite a bit of time before I could believe that he (obviously the most eligible person on the planet) could possibly feel that way about me!

Today he is wearing the shirt he wore when we met. That makes me doubly blessed: a husband who cares enough to remember and save the shirt and a husband who still fits in shirts he wore when he was 18!

In some ways being young when we married made things easier - it's not the path for everyone, to be sure, but it was our path. We grew together when we were young and flexible. We formed each other. We were blissfully ignorant of all the things that could (and some that would) go wrong. When thing did go wrong, we helped each other through. We put down spiritual roots together.

Twenty years later, he's still my best friend, still keeping me up too late talking, still surprising me, still supporting me, still fascinating me. Thank you God!

It's Our Golden Anniversary!

Kind of.

We were married on the 19th and it's our 19th anniversary!

Best Beloved:

there's no one I'd rather clean up eggs with than you,


there's no one I'd rather stay up way too late talking with,

there's no one I'd rather retile the bathroom with,

there's no one I'd rather work with, play with, write with, laugh with, peggle with, raise kids with, pray with, or live with.

It had to be you!

Here's to another 19 crazy years!!