10

Image by Jinsey Dauk
7/21/01

10...
How can it be? 
Sometimes it feels like 20, other times it feels like I am just about to gently step into my dress..I am not going to lie...it's not been an easy road..Although, I figure that it's kinda like learning how to ride a bike..There is no instruction manual and you have to have courage and faith in order to do it....There's an unsureness to it at first.....both legs and feet have to work together to find the rhythm...then you glide..It gets easier and you become bolder so you pick up speed, soar down a hill with both arms held open like you can fly...then... the littlest pebble can make you tumble, fall..There may possibly be bruises, possibly gravel stuck in your side and even stitches..but.. 
you get back on and you are gliding again...

Exactly 12 days ago, we had a cousin who was married in the exact same spot as we were...The sky was blue (the tall one would argue and say ours was cloudless), the temperature..perfect and the breeze...just a mere brush stroke on your back..After dinner as the sun set, we walked the same walk, in the same exact spot that we had done a mere 10 years earlier and watched from afar.....the Fabulous Mr. Jerry Browne had started spinning in perfect Jerry form..Under the tent, the dance floor was packed full of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends. Smack dab in in the middle of it...was the Monster...dancing his little heart out and seriously busting a move to a little Michael Jackson...
Under those same stars...we were there...hand in hand...
Again, I am not going to lie but I became a little overwhelmed (in a good way) and I think a couple tears welled up in the corner of my eyes.
Together,we are were able to watch what we had promised to each other 10 years ago. Love, commitment, and family. We had received our wish...Us hand in hand, our Monster as happy as happy can be...surrounded by THE most important people in our lives...
They say it takes a village to raise a child...
Well my friends...I am lucky to say that we certainly have one...

So in my instruction manual, 
that I have been writing for just 10 years, 
says:


Always keep your feet moving, in unison as best as you can. 
If you stumble or fall it's best to immediately get back on and start peddling again.


Happy Anniversary my Tall One..
I am so glad to be on this glorious ride with you..
Maybe this year we can get a bell!