I love Shakespeare's sonnets. And the romantic in me (trust me nonbelievers, there's one in there somewhere) has always held 116 close to my heart. In days of old, the words would conjure up an image of Kate Winslet reciting it on a cliff, tears streaming down her face, rain pouring, wind blowing. Tragic, poignant, a la Sense and Sensibility.
But now, as my ninth anniversary approaches, I have a new appreciation for the words and what the real marriage of minds means. It is the kind of love that looks on every day reality and is not altered or shaken. Basement apartments, burnt meals, ear infections, births and deaths, ebbing and flowing finances, waxing and waning weight, tragedies and triumphs, sleepless nights, and countless other things. A love that will endure all that, and inevitably much more, is that which has a worth unknown.
So here's to Sonnet 116 and its timeless wisdom. And here's to nine incredible years of marriage, four beautiful children, and a husband that is my "ever fixed mark." And also, as an added bonus, is never too good to vacuum, do dishes, or change a diaper!
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O; no! It is an ever fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
