Another Year Has Gone By (12/19/08)

There’s this Celine Dion song that I love to listen to around this time of year…I know that now I want to write about it I’ll never be able to remember the lyrics–that’s just the way this brain works. It goes something like, “so many 25ths of December…just as many fourths of July…”…okay I’m blank. Gimme a sec. (Picture me humming.)

 

Still humming.

 

Oh! Got it! I think. It’s “Another Year Has Gone By.”

 

So many 25ths of December,

just as many Fourths of July,

And we’re still holding it together,

It only comes down to you and I.

 

I know that you can still remember

Things we said right from the start

When we said that this could be special

I’m keeping those words down deep in my heart

 

Another year has gone by

And I’m still the one by your side

After everything that’s gone by

There’s still no one saying goodbye

Though another year has gone by

 

I’ve never been one for occasions

But you never let a birthday go by…

And we’re still holding hands when we’re walking,

Acting like we’ve only just met,

But how can that be, when there’s so much history…

 

I guess that’s how true lovers just get.

 

This song is such a testament (to me, at any rate) to the value implicit in the longevity of relationships. There is so much shared wealth between two people who have been together for any length of time–wealth in things we forget to even reflect upon after a while. I consider sometimes what it would be like if something, God forbid, were to happen to my husband and I were to be alone. I don’t tell him often enough what he means to me, and how much I do value the little idiosyncracies of our relationship…it’s when I stop to consider its absence that its worth becomes all the more apparent.

 

When you’ve been with someone for a while, you cease to think about all the flaws and oddball characteristics in yourself that your other half thankfully also ceases to think about. Flaws and oddities, that, when you’re in your twenties, don’t really seem like such a big deal, but which suddenly seem so magnified when you’re older and think about exposing them for someone else to lay witness to. For example, I still get a little peeved that my husband thinks the floor is a Fine Quality Shelving Unit. And his hunting! No other woman on this planet would be as understanding as I am about his need for Quality Time with the Woodland Animals. To be fair, though, I’m equally sure that he thinks after thirteen years of marriage (plus two of dating) I should understand Forest and Lynchburg traffic patterns well enough to get somewhere (anywhere?) on time. Just once would be nice.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’m quite sure that although you think you know me, Duane could make you a list of arcane and eyebrow raising facts about me that only come with close, personal knowledge. In all seriousness, though, there’s something profoundly humbling about having someone so close to you still love you. Someone who knows you like to go to sleep on your back, but actually fall asleep on your side. Someone who knows you laugh while you sleep, and talk about cakes falling and snakes in the bed. Someone who sees you lose it with your kids and yourself, and is okay with that…is okay with you being you, with you being human and fallible.

So…here’s to another year (almost) gone by with my better half–who sometimes bothers to read my blog and may actually even get that I’m still head over heels for him.