Clare and Joe
My friends Clare and Joe Barboza are celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary over the weekend. I will be there to toast them and offer these words.
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I loved you when you were nothing more than a dream. You were somewhere waiting; I knew this and did not despair. And then one day you were there, just across the room on an ordinary day. My person. And you were larger than my dreams, more expansive than my imagination. You became the eyes I searched for in every crowded room. You filled the empty spaces and soothed the caverns of hurt lurking unseen.
And we were a spark and then a flame, scorching the languid night.
We whispered in the hours before dawn. Here I am, all of me. I will open the hidden caverns of my soul for you to see and feel, to hold in your hands without judgment or fear.
I wondered then � could you be my home?
And we declared, yes. I choose you.ÌýComeÌýhome to me. I will call out to you in the bright day or the dark night. And you will answer.ÌýI am here. You are chosen. I am your home.
The work of it came then. Day after day we toiled and loved and laughed and cried and worried and consoled, imperfect but there, no matter the chill or the heat. Sometimes I wondered � would we survive the bitter wind that threatened to blow us into a stormy sea? But we held tight. We dug deep.
Our hearts widened. Our resolve strengthened. We softened. We grew together.
Ten years passed.
The fire between us no longer scorches a field of swaying grass but warms a room on a winter’s night with the soft glow of steady burning embers. And I know now, this is real love, the kind that lasts, the kind that matters.
You are always waiting. I know this and do not despair.
I promise, once again, to take your beating, tender, passionate heart and hold it in my hands, draw it close, shelter it no matter the storms to come, no matter the toil and joys and uncertainties as the years unfold.
It is your eyes I search for in every crowded room.
Today we say once again. I am here. You are chosen. I am your home.Ìý
You are my family. My home. My love.
Still, I choose you.
