Friday, September 13, 2013

Her best-ever birthday present

My bashert
Laval, QC
August 2013
Anyone who knows our family knows that Dahlia was born the day before Debbie's birthday. This makes our Peanut Girl the best birthday gift my wife ever received. Yes, the Super Bass-o-Matic '76 put up a valiant fight, but in the end the little pink bundle of joy won out.

So while the fish-mixer gathers dust in the far corners of our basement, Debbie celebrates her birthday today. Do I dare divulge the number? Ah, no. But here's the thing about my lovely wife: she hasn't changed all that much since I first met her. Despite my years of stressing the daylights out of her, she's managed to look as lovely now as she did when I first met her. I'll apologize in advance if I can't stop staring.

She'll call me blind. She'll say I have no taste. I'll politely disagree, because from where I sit, she's beautiful in ways I will never be able to describe in words. That kindness and empathy that I wrote about yesterday? Our kids get it from her. You can almost feel it when she speaks to you, and you find yourself wishing more folks would learn from her example.

I'll never know how I came to deserve her as my wife, but I won't quibble with the forces of the universe - they always win, anyway. Instead, as I sit in the middle of a family we created and listen to the sounds of life in a house that she's made a home through sheer force of will, I'll say a quiet thank you that she picked me, that I get to celebrate milestones like today as well as ordinary days when we have nothing overt to celebrate, but we celebrate anyway because we were given another ordinary day in the first place. I've been given these days with her, and I have no intention of wasting them.

As special as today is in the life of an amazingly special woman, tomorrow is the first of 364 over the course of another year that will be just as special simply because we get to share it - and them - with her. Happy birthday, sweets. To 120 and beyond...

Your turn: Your birthday wish for Debbie is...?

1 comment:

Dianne - Bunny Trails said...

I wish her a sweet birthday, where she is able to enjoy each and every moment as it comes, not rushing to something else, fully grasping the love of her family, and overflowing with joy for the life she has been given. :D