I have 41 summer solstices under my belt (er, girdle, I mean Spanx), and four years ago today, on the solstice of June 20, 2008 (yes, the solstice happened to fall on the 20th that year...this year, too!), I married a man who I love more and more every day.
The ceremony took place on a Friday morning and right out of the gate the forecast was calling for rain at any moment. Miraculously, it held out until late that afternoon. The day was perfect, really, going off without a hitch. We had an intimate, yet public, ceremony in the Boston Public Garden, foregoing a permit and decidedly having ourselves a rebel wedding. Naturally.
I was all nerves as we stood beneath a purple beech tree--our tree--to the point where my mouth was horrifically dry and my body was slightly, but noticeably, rocking back and forth (which I was completely unaware of at the time--only evidenced by our wedding video). My surroundings were blurred and muted, my senses attuned to our officiant's words, Vin's smile and adoring eyes fixed on me, and the elated smile on my son's face. I can't recall anything else (no, not even a squirrel's excited racket immediately above our heads, also evidenced on video), except for how I felt.
The contentment I experienced that day combined with the certainty that I was marrying a man with whom I could build and share a life were so completely resonant that I felt a lightness--a genuine peace--I had never before felt (with the exception of when I gave birth to, and held, my first child). It was a day, neither long nor short, in that kind of existential way, that has given way to a fulfilling marriage on which we work, to varying degrees, every day; two beautiful and amazing children; and a life I never thought I'd have with a man who is steadfastly loyal, almost always charming and has interminable wit and boundless integrity.
So, in a measurable 365.25 days from last June 20, on a day with approximately 15 hours of sunlight, Happy Fourth Anniversary to us!
