One Year Ago

🌲 This was us, just a year ago.

I’ve been writing this post in my head for weeks now, never quite coming up with the right words. All the words. Any of the words. Too many words?

What do you say about a person who you can’t live without? What do you say to that person?

Well, to them, you tell them you love them. And I do.

You tell them every day. You tell them when you wake up and when you go to bed and you probably tell them, in one way or another, in your sleep.

And I do all those things. Religiously.

So, am I writing this post for her?
For you, dear reader?
For myself?
A mix of all three, I’m sure.

I just wanted to write something to commemorate it.

I’m not arrogant enough to think I’ll write something uniquely profound about love in an Instagram caption, but I guess I should try?

Love is such a private, intense thing.
The only people who know what our love is really like is us.

The only people who ever know what any love is, are those sharing it. It's just how it works.

Sometimes you can see two people and know, "they're in love," but you never know exactly how, or the scope, or what it feels like for them.

Sometimes you want the whole world to know about your love. Maybe that's this post, for me?

Both of us have loved others in the past, still love others from our past, but this love, our love, is a different kind of love.

All loves are different, but this one is different still.

A year ago we got married, not for the world, but for us. Just the two of us on the courthouse steps. (Well, technically, not just two, since we had only found out weeks before that a stowaway was also there, this amazing little girl we'd meet seven months later.)

Our love has been life changing, constant and intense. It's real and deep down. I feel it in parts of me I didn't know existed before. It has opened secret doors. It keeps growing. keeps changing. It's what I want. It's what I need. It’s sure.

It was sure a year ago on those marbled steps.

To Everyone (who's read this far) — thank you for being you, and I hope you have love.

To Emily — thank you for an amazing year, and happy anniversary, my beautiful love.