Twenty Six Years

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It’s  staggering…how one gets to certain milestones. Perhaps it’s like hiking a mountain, and you get to the top, or to an overlook, and you look down, scratching your head as to how you made it that far!

Perhaps it’s like knitting a sweater and when it’s finished, you marvel at how it’s finished, knowing full well the tricky parts where you thought you might not be able to see it through to the end.

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On June 25th my husband and I celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary. Golly, that’s a long time. Not as long as my parents who will be celebrating 50 this year, but still…a long time.

Whether it’s one step at a time, one stitch at a time, or one day at a time…that’s how a life is lived, a marriage is forged. So many amazing and wonderful things we have seen and experienced together:  the births of our three lovely children, watching them grow and become the young adults they are. Even the difficult times become a glue that will not easily dissolve: deaths of grandparents, my mom’s cancers, and our own youngest diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes five years ago. The good and the bad end up being beautiful yarns knitted together to make an amazing marriage. We are broken and faulty individuals, my husband and I. But perhaps it is in the brokenness where we see the Hand of One stitching us together.

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It also helps, that this man I married 26 years ago, sends me flowers! I love flowers! Their colors, shapes, combinations, textures…they are a feast for the eyes to be sure! And I just love to draw and paint them! I typically create a line version (the one at the beginning of this post).

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…and then another without any drawing first. Just for the fun of it. And to have something other than a photograph by which to remember them.

This year, not only did I receive flowers, but he also gave me yarn!! YARN!! That is a first!

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My favorite colors all wound up in bales of wool! Like the photograph of us above on the day of our wedding, they do look like bales of hay…something else I love to draw and paint.

I’m grateful for the past 26 years with this man who captured my heart. I look forward to the next 26 years of flowers, perhaps some more yarn, but mostly him!

11 thoughts on “Twenty Six Years

  1. Leigh Mueller says:

    Congratulations on your Anniversary! You are such a beautiful person and I enjoy reading every word you write along with the wonderful art you illustrate with. Its a real pleasure and one I look forward to each day.

  2. kay glore says:

    Beautiful thoughts.

    the one step – one stitch reminds me of
    a favorite saying – “how do you eat an elephant? – one bite at a time!”

  3. freebirdsings says:

    Well Happy Belated Anniversary! Your flowers and paintings of them are just lovely! Yarn for your anniversary! That IS different but then your husband must know you well after all this time and knows this will help take your mind off your pain for a little bit. What a sweet gift. So– what are you going to do with that yarn? And you two made a beautiful couple in that wedding photo!

  4. Elizabeth Marley says:

    Sweet post! I thought of how we always purchased my grandmother the HUGE skeins of yarn when we traveled to her house. I would think to my young self how odd that she enjoye yarn! Yarn?!? Sounded silly to me. Fat forward 40 years and I now get thrilled when I see yarn in stores or even pictures. Must be maturity

    • jenpedwards says:

      I love this! Your love for yarn is probably genetic! My grandmother was a knitter, so was/is my mom, my oldest daughter… It just “comes out” in us at different times. If I remember correctly, I think Megan likes yarn? I miss her and all the students!

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