Patrick and I celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary in September of last year. I’ve been sitting on this post for a few reasons.
We’ve been traveling, and then the holidays, and well… LIFE.
I’ve also been thinking hard about what to say, and how to say it.
We do not have a sappy love story…
Cuz that’s for the birds… or for perfectly curated Instagram pages.
Now don’t get me wrong… these pictures are pretty perfect… and they are shot by an amazing photographer (thank you Max Wanger), but there is a very honest story behind them, and a story I’d like to tell… just in time for the sappiest holiday arriving at a February near you.
My hubby is notoriously social media shy (and he shouldn’t be… he is an uber successful fitness and life coach for both celebrities and “regular” people alike).
If you follow my Instagram, you’ll notice that there aren’t very many pictures of us together. There aren’t very many “shout outs” to each other on Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, etc.
There aren’t many kissing selfies accompanied by “goals” hashtags (if that’s your thing, though… more power to you!).
It just ain’t Patrick’s style.
What there IS, however… is the “behind the scenes”. An old fashioned kind of love. And THAT… is where the beauty of marriage… at least our marriage lives, and where it survives.
Like when you have an “idea”… that “idea” being balloons so big you need three separate cars to drive them to your location on a day your significant other feels like crap, but he does it anyway (but not without a little bit of a fight… because, let’s be real).
Like when you are the “creative” in the family… and you are totally supported in your endeavors, whether those endeavors bring in the money, or cost money (note very big expensive balloons), or both… because he loves you.
Like when you both fuck up…
… and you could let go…
But you don’t.
Like when you ask him to take the plunge… literally… and he goes for it.
This is love.
Snot running down the face from being in the ocean with a cold love.
Sparkly moments like these, padded by the grit and grime of sand between our toes… fairy tale snapshots tempered with reality… the reality of being human.
A tale that is a bit tattered, torn and tempestuous… beautiful in its patched up patterns… pieced together WITH the perfect moments, because being such opposites in love is both a bitch and a blessing combined (I could write a whole essay on this alone).
Perfect moments like these…
… built one moment at a time…
… one kiss at a time, one argument at a time, one compromise at a time, one understanding at a time.
It’s a tale as old as time…
… and this one’s ours.
And it’s #goals to me… in all its messy glory.
Happy 10 Year Baby.
