Meet Linda, the major reason I am who I am becoming. On August 26, 2020, she will have been my spouse for 52 years. To say I love her seems like an absolute understatement, since she is the source of the happiness I feel every day.
She and I are quite different:
- I can live life too quickly and too loudly; she prefers to wait for the natural moment to influence, quietly
- she is rational; I am emotional
- the wind can blow me around; she is beacon of steadiness
Opposites do, in fact, attract. She once said that she was sticking with me because I make her laugh, and that may be true, but you need to understand that my motivation in doing so is that wonderful, natural smile of hers, the one that nourishes the deepest part of my soul.
And what has she given me in return for making her laugh? Oh just …
- being a role model for the values and behaviors that make our marriage and our parenting successful
- three wonderful children and their 5 beautiful daughters
- the unflagging support in my careers that have required we uproot and live in different cultures, speak another language
- the belief that I may yet become the whole person I want to be
Seems like a pretty fantastic return! In the drawing I have done of my personal vision, she wears a halo. In fact, when we went to Italy to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, I told people we were going because Pope Francis wanted to make her a saint. Many of the people to whom I said this just nodded, showing they did indeed know her … and me!
Of all the roles she has played in my life: from cutie-pie to girlfriend to fiancée to wife to mother to best friend, it is the last one that I cherish the most. I suspect that many people go through their lives without ever discovering the profound joy of a best-ever-possible friend; I thank my lucky stars that I live that joy every day.
Linda … you are the shaper of my love and my life. Thank you for it all. I feel like Pierre, the stuffed dog in this picture … blessed.
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