Dear Mom & Dad,
WOW! 30 years! I was hoping to start off this letter with less of an exclaimationary more gently loving statement but when I sat down to write, my fingers couldn’t help but type those words. Thirty years. Wow. I look up to you both in awe ---beyond my position as your daughter and simply as witness of all the compounding joys a dedicated, loving and respectful marriage gives a couple as the years and decades are lived. Really and truly LIVED. Each day consciously activating the vows to love and nurture each other in the most authentic way you can…. and in doing so, building upon the reasons you fell in love in the first place.
I could fill pages and pages with so many valuable lessons. I could go into such detail on how your partnership is living proof that when you make your marriage a priority, when it is #1 in your world, and when pristine care is taken to cherish, uplift and encourage your spouse….the most solid foundation of a family is born. I’m not sure there’s any formula to the perfect home, but if I had to guess, I think it starts with two people being madly in love and then allowing their children to witness their adoration and respect over many years and many of life’s ups & downs. So what have I, your eldest child, learned most from your marriage? Admittedly, I’ve racked my brain for days trying to think of the one overarching lesson that I thought worthy enough for this anniversary note. And then it came to me. Without even realizing it, Mom & Dad, your marriage taught me how to choose the right partner. Of course, falling in love is something every young woman dreams of doing. One can’t help but let the mind wonder who it will be, when it will be, how it will come about and what story will be told. But it is more than that. It is choosing a partner that will go with you on long walks, welcome your hobbies as their own, read in silence together, divulge their innermost pangs, never stop asking you questions, inspire you to be a better person, and want nothing more in life than to simply share all the experiences with you, by your side, as your biggest cheerleader and unwavering companion. There is such beauty in the everydayness of a great marriage: waking up to the kind of person that you not only fell head over heels in love with, but the kind of person that if everything was lost and you just had each other THAT would be more than enough. You taught me this by example and I always carried that notion with me as I went through life….hoping to find a man to live that example as my own. And look at that…I did ;)
Cheers to you both and to your marriage! And to 30 more years!
Love you guys,
Sarah