Now and Then

The alarm went off this morning at 6:30 and I watched my beloved get out of bed for his early morning walk.  I was so grateful for a few more minutes of warm snuggling under the covers.

The sunlight began to stream through our bedroom window and I reminisced about a morning 15 years ago when I awoke to gray skies and drizzle and burrowed into the pillow, smiling in anticipation of that long walk up the aisle awaiting me at 6:30 that afternoon.

As I stretched, fluffed the pillow and decided that 10 more minutes wouldn’t kill me, I thought about that languorous stretch at the end of the day all those years ago.  The skies had waited until the festivities were over before they finally opened up and poured.  We laughed as we shook the water from our hair in the hotel room.  I took the hottest shower ever to get the tons of hairspray out of my hair, slipped on the hotel’s terry cloth robe, and just stretched out the kinks and tension of that long and joyful day.  I stretched out on the bed and sighed contentedly while he showered, and I reveled in my new-found status as his wife.

The next morning was a delight of late sleeping and room service breakfast.  I still dream about those waffles from time to time.  I don’t know what was in them, but I’ve never had their equal.  I was debating trying to duplicate them this morning when I heard the front door open and my sweetheart’s returning to me.  He was greeted by a thunder of small feet pounding down the stairs, and then tearing towards our bedroom.

Instead of the quietly spoken “Good morning” of fifteen years ago, we were feted with a chorus of voices our love has created.  We were kissed, hugged and congratulated by the direct results of that dreary gray June day.

We had no idea the things we set in motion as we spoke with nervous voices and affirmed for family, God and each other that we were each other’s for the whole of our lives.  I could never have predicted the overflowing of love and emotion that would fill me when he walks through the door, or how it has grown stronger with each passing year.  I could not have foretold the calm and peace his voice brings me except when it sends that little shiver up my spine.  I would not have even imagined the gift of this joyously large family or ever thought that our simple love could multiply in so many ways.

This morning, I kissed my beloved as he walked out the door on his way to the office and counted myself among the very luckiest of women because I’m the one who gets to welcome him home in the evenings.

Fifteen years growing together, a houseful of children, a rich and colorful history, and now we’re on the threshold of this whole new adventure together.  I can’t wait to see where it takes us, my beloved and me.