[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_post_title admin_label=”Post Title” title=”on” meta=”off” author=”on” date=”on” categories=”on” comments=”on” featured_image=”off” featured_placement=”below” parallax_effect=”off” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”left” text_color=”dark” text_background=”off” text_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” title_font_size=”57px” title_line_height=”1.2em” /][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#ffffff” show_divider=”off” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

“Tell the world that we finally got it all right: I choose you.” – ‘I Choose You’, Sara Bareilles

Two years ago
(it doesn’t seem like
quite that long
and yet
it seems like
it’s always been)
you and I
we stood with
sand and sea
and against
all the odds
and said:
I choose you.
We said
I am my beloved’s
and my beloved is mine,
and we wear those words
wrapped in silver
around our fingers,
reminders we don’t necessarily need
but treasure all the same,
these outward signs
that this time
we finally got it right.

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Even if
little old ladies
give us dirty looks
for all the years between,
all those years that
it took us to find each other.
Happiness does not have
an age limit.

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And so today
we made that drive again,
though today
we made it from
our own house
and in slightly less
formal attire
and we brought our own cameras.
Because this is just
what we do.

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.

And like we do
when it’s just you and I there
we wander the beach –
our always favorite beach –
looking for shells
and taking pictures.

Mostly of each other.

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You take more than I do,
because I usually
get distracted
by shells and water
and making faces at you
for taking pictures of me.
I still get a few of you though,
as much as you grumble about it,
and then remind me
no one else ever bothered
to take photos of you.

But I do.
I do now,
and I did then,
and I will keep on
choosing you.
We have
our share of
hard days
and our days
when one of us
has to be
everything for the other,
when the bough breaks
and everything does come down crashing
and when there are days
it seems like
the sun just might quit shining.
The kind of day where
you wonder
and ask
do I regret it?
Do I think I made a mistake?
Wouldn’t I have been happier
with someone else?

And I don’t ever have the words then
to tell you
that there is no someone else.
I don’t have the words to explain
that even in
the face of cancer and chemo
and broke and terrified,
and everything else
(it’s a long, wild list)
that we’ve weathered together,
it was always more than worth it.
I wouldn’t trade you
and what we have
for something else,
something maybe you think
might be better,
because from the start
I knew what I wanted
and the cost has never
been too high:
I choose you.

I meant it when I said it then,
and I still mean them now:

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I love you. I have loved you when you were sick, when you were broken, when you were lost and angry. I have loved you when you didn’t think I should, and when you didn’t think it would last. I have loved you when the world was falling down around us, and loving you was the only sure thing I could do. I loved you when no one thought I should, and I have kept right on loving you until everyone understood why I did… and I promise to keep right on loving you. I won’t promise that the road ahead of us is ever going to be easy, but I promise that I will fight for us, hell or high water. I promise to do everything in my power to be the calm in your storms, even when in the middle of my own. I promise to always hold the best of you first, even when you can’t. I promise to be your safe harbor when you are tired, and the wind in your sails when the waves call you, and the light in the dark that calls you home. And, while yes, I know, you tell me that you love me more, and yes, you probably loved me first, should the day ever come that I am me without you, I promise you that I will love you longer.

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Happy 2nd Anniversary, Lovie. <3

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