Happy Anniversary!

My parents spent their twentieth anniversary washing windows.

They don't actually remember how they spent their tenth anniversary, but they had a five year old and a two year old, so I can only imagine it was equally as romantic. Their thirtieth anniversary is today - and they have no special plans.

My sister and I decided to give them a new dishwasher as an anniversary gift. Clearly, I joked, we inherited our parents' sense of romance and passion. Or their distinct lack of it.

What we have inherited from them, though, more than makes up for the dearth of wine and roses. Not that we don't all appreciate flowers, but flowers eventually die, no matter how diligently you water them. With proper care and feeding, a good marriage can last forever.

From growing up with our parents, my sister and I have learned the valuable lesson that love for your spouse isn't enough. (Although it's certainly a good start.) We've learned that you also have to acknowledge your spouse's faults while somehow still ignoring them. You have to let wife know that she has your unwavering support. You have to laugh with your husband, and occasionally, you must also laugh at him.

My husband and I married in our early twenties, as did my parents. People sometimes say to us, as they must have sometimes said to my parents, how young we are to be married. We may be young, but I’ve never felt unprepared to be married. Thanks to my parents, the thing I know, possibly above all others, is what makes a good marriage.

I see in them a couple who not only love each other, but like each other, and laugh together on a regular basis. My sister and I are incredibly lucky to have grown up with their example, and to have learned early on that there are more important things in a relationship than flowers.

I hope, in another few decades, to be washing windows with my husband on our anniversary.


Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad.