On June 9th my husband and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. Wow, 30 years. Sometimes it seems longer, but most of the time it seems barely anytime has passed at all since we were making those wedding plans. And I love to plan parties and celebrations.
For our 25th anniversary, we had a big party, with dancing of course, and lots of our friends in attendance. We took a group of some of our closest out to dinner with us in limos and had delicious food, fine wine and great laughs. It’s interesting to realize we didn’t know any of these people when we got married. Our married journey together brought us to them.
And our journey has been like most others. We’ve had our share of good times and bad. I choose to remember mostly the good ones. We’ve been to Hawaii twice – once we took my parents along; it was my daddy’s favorite vacation. (Unfortunately, we’ve lost both our dads now.) We’ve spent weekends traveling to pick apples and oranges in season and visit massive gardens around historical homes. We’ve learned to grow beautiful roses and worked a small garden. We designed and had our current home built and would love to build another one someday. Although we have no children, we have two nieces and two nephews we love dearly. My husband has learned, over the years, the joy and amusement of owning cats.
We have much to celebrate. Once, when I expressed my concern over “how it looked” to have a big celebration for our anniversary, my hairdresser made an interesting observation. (Hairdressers, barbers, bartenders…they hear it all!) She said that not enough people make a big deal about celebrating anniversaries. In fact, perhaps more money deserved to be spent on anniversaries than weddings. After all, anyone can get married; it doesn’t take much to do that. Staying married is another thing entirely. That requires lots of work and dedication and really should be celebrated. A lasting marriage is so rare these days it deserves special recognition.
I like that.
May you discover something in your life today, no matter how small, that deserves a grand celebration.
Congratulations on 30 years! We are approaching 25 years, but my husband decided we neede the big celebration at 23 years. His reasoning was that we are not gauranted tomorrow, so he set up a surprise anniversary trip for me. After 23 years he knew the exact kind of trip and activities I would like. He really had been paying attention. It was wonderful!
How right you are. Celebrate! With lots of friends or just both of you. Make good memories.