Happy Anniversary!

It's November 20. Yesterday, we celabrated our 42nd anniversary. We dated in our senior year of High School, stayed together while Sharon went to college and I fullfilled my military obligation including a year in Vietnam. We were married in 1966. Our marriage survived the 60's without the benefit of drugs, the 70's without considering divorce (which was all the rage), the 80's without abandoning a home full of teenagers (kids so high on hormones that drugs might have provided relief), the 90's without begging our kids to come home and keep us company, and well into the 2000's in spite of eight of the most destructive years in US history and the resulting feeling of personal futility.

We celabrated with a couple of days at Carmel Valley Ranch. It was delightful. It was a sunny 75 degrees and the fall color was as good as it gets in California. We wandered around village art galleries and ate some of the best food ever.

I look back on 42 years (46 really) with a rush of joy, sorrow, triumph, failure, and, most of all, fullfillment. How did I ever find her? How did she ever find me? How did we ever sustain love and support for each other as our individual identies emerged and grew? I don't know. The warmth of our anniversary will be at the Thanksgiving table next week. I'll give thanks, again, for the bounty.