Eleven Eleven Eleven again

22.12.22

Eleven years, eleven months, eleven days, eleven hours.

Of you. Me. Us (more or less), since we first met, on the eleventh of the first in the year eleven.

(Is it a coincidence that our combined lives began on a binary?)

What years we have enjoyed! After all the toil and tears that preceded, that we induced (truth – which mainly I induced), to have reached this far and now we can see with clear eyes the truth of our love, our being, having become, together.

Thank you. So nearly it didn’t come to pass; I was slow, dilatory, procrastinated, couldn’t do the things that had to be done. And you hung in there. Not always together, not often in those early months, but you refused to give up the best chance of happiness that either of us had seen. So it was your strength and determination which made now possible.

But most of all, I thank you for the wonderful life we have lived together, you, me, the girl, the dogs, our home, our good times and bad (thankfully few and far between, those bad days). It’s strange to think that she was such a little thing, so young and full of life, happy in spite of her hardships and always such a beautiful child – like her mother – you too are still a beauty, as I see you now in my mind’s eye, head on the pillow, golden hair spread out as a halo and lit by the glory of your loving smile. And now she is a woman in her own right – athletic, graceful, still happy, still full of energy and love, wanting love. We all three have that.

Highlights? Every day has been a highlight in itself, a moment to cherish at least once a day, whether it was waking up next to each other (though that would be harder for you than for me), the dog jumping on the bed, the girl jumping on the bed, the organised chaos of breakfast and getting ready and cars and kisses and walks and always love, or falling finally asleep, passion spent but always to be reborn, touch and smell and senses colliding as and when we could, wanted to, deserved.

As we come up to one more joyful family Christmas, I want to tell you how much I still love you, how happy you have made me, how lucky I feel to have received the greatest gift of all – my own life – how humble I still feel beside the magnificent, glorious joyous being that is you, my own green fairy.

Which doesn’t mean I won’t be slipping you a little something on Christmas Eve, late at night…

Merry Christmas, my love.