Twenty-Five

Twenty-five                                        

By John W. Vander Velden

There are numbers and there are numbers.  Twenty-five seems the kind of number that gets noticed.  I remember my twenty-fifth birthday, and wondering if would ever achieve the goals I had expected to reach by that milestone.

Now I face another twenty-five year mark.  For during that slice of my life my world changed in ways expected and in many more ways I had not anticipated.  In 1989, on a snowy March Saturday, I began a new adventure.  An adventure I did not experience alone.  An adventure that is far from complete.  An adventure that promises an interesting future.

For on that day -- I bound my life to another.  And now – yes, now -- I look at twenty-five years.  The time might seem, to many, as a period of great length.  But it feels as but a moment.  It is only when I consider all the “things” we have – together -- done, seen, or endured, does the reality of twenty-five, sink in.  But what does one say about the nine thousand one hundred and thirty-one days.  About all the sun rises – about all the meals shared – about the many sentences finished by the other – or the words that did not need to be said.  Time moves us ahead – day by day – month by month – and yes, year after year.

But above all I consider myself fortunate.  How many marriages vaporize before they arrive at the marker known as twenty-five?  Yet, I will not be arrogant, believing that I have reached this place on my own.  Some may say it is by chance that I have come to this place – Perhaps.  But those that say those things do not know my beloved or me very well.  There have been times when grit was required – for life does not always flow easily.  For two people sharing a common “space” does get interesting at times.  Yet because the things we share in common far outweigh our differences, and that in-balance continues to grow with time.  Because I had the good fortune to marry the one that has become my “bestest” friend – my hero – my other half – the one who carries me when I no longer have the strength to trudge onward – yes, my soul mate – these twenty-five years have been my best.

Milestones cause us to take time to look back, and looking back reminds us of from where we have come.  But today is an important time to look forward as well.  None can know what the future holds – what delights – what challenges – what pains or disappointments.   I am not so foolish to believe that in the years I face I will be spared all illness – pain – or grief.  That I will have only sunshine and song birds each day of the rest of my life.  But I face the unknown with two absolutes.  I am loved by a GOD that will never abandon, and my life is firmly bound, to a better person than I, who will walk all those days at my side.

So I say – Happy Anniversary my love.  It’s been a great twenty-five years!

(517 Words)