26 years

Today is our 26th anniversary. It could just as well have been May 3rd when we threw a weekend celebration in honor of ourselves for 45 of our friends and family. It also could have been a date in September neither of us can remember, when we two women became the 1006th couple in Provincetown to legally marry one another, finally, because we could.

Together we have lived in three houses in three places, one affluent, one ocean side, one rural. We have raised a phenomenal and vibrant daughter even though sometimes we were all more triangles than circles. We've loved three dogs and two cats and one white bird. We've lived apart and commuted to and from Maine and Massachusetts every week for five years and we grown into ourselves and with each other over the years, together, separate, together. I have always felt loved. There was a time now five years ago when I was sure that love could multiply and when I found that could not be, it was she who told me it was not my fault, she who had been hurt the most, who stood to protect me when arrows broke my skin.

I found a card leaning against the coffee pot this morning. Inside it said, "I am not always perfect in my love for you--but always know that I love you dearly and always will." She will be embarrassed and maybe even upset that I have shared something so intimate on my blog. But it says so much about her.

Tomorrow night we will dine at a rare elegant restaurant and include dessert. Chances are we will toss our heads back, laughing and remembering when we first met, when we first knew, why we still honor this day as the first day. I don't thank her enough. I hope she knows.

Happy Anniversary JB Ms. Petunia.

♥

kj