State of the Union

Somehow the 28th Wedding Anniversary came and went without any official acknowledgement here in blogland. For past anniversaries I have sung his praises, and given you the secret to our success. So this year, I will tell you a story.

Our daughter, Siara once described us rather aptly with this: "Dad's all Rock n Roll (as she demonstrated with some wild air guitar) and Mom is "La la la la la (done with some lovely air violin). What can I say? I had a thing for bad-boy RM  accounting majors who drive beat-up Plymouth Volari station wagons. So, with two very different people in a marriage, you can imagine that there has been some need for adjustment and compromise over the years. To put it mildly.

There came a time amidst the craziness of raising our big family, that I realized I had become a little negative in my attitude toward my Prince Charming. I  found an outlet for my frustration in my journal. Journal writing pretty much saved me big bucks in therapy over the years. But, I began to realize that I usually took the time to whine and complain in my journal when things didn't go my way but I didn't always take the time to pour out my feelings when I was happy with my hubby. So I decided to remedy that. I set a goal to write two good things about my guy each time I wrote in my journal. And I did. I faithfully recorded the little endearing things he said or did. I wrote about his amazing feats of strength when he worked around the house. I waxed lyrical about his willingness to bathe the children and put them to bed that one time. I recorded my admiration for his hard work in providing for us. His careful planning. His untiring service in his church callings.  It really did wonders for my attitude as I took a moment at the end of each day to dwell on the positive. The exercise served its purpose and eventually tapered off and I forgot about it.

Until...Andy was going to give a talk in church and he asked me about a specific incident involving one of the kids. I pulled out my journal to give him the details and I noticed those little addendums to my journal entries back then. I thought he might enjoy hearing them so I told him what I had done and started reading them to him. It was quite heart-warming up until I came upon this one:

                                 "He's asleep right now"
                                 "He bathes regularly"

I guess that wasn't a good day. Luckily he laughed heartily and told the story in his talk the next day.

And thus we see, Gentle Reader, that true love is a work in progress. I'm just glad I have a whole eternity to figure it out--and 28 years is a good start.