The Bouquet of My Life

June 3, 1994.

I asked.

She said yes.

I don't remember everything that ever happened to me, but I remember that date. That was the day that my life began. That was the day that Sharon, in a momentary lapse of reason, agreed to marry me.

I remember this day every year, and I try to commemorate it in some way. One year it was a door knob (Tom Sawyer's engagement ring to Becky Thatchter). One year it was a ring with the inscription "My life would suck without you." Last year it was an Irish Claddagh ring.

I take great pleasure in remembering this day each year, and even more pleasure in the fact that Sharon seems to forget it. Truthfully, I think she just humors me now :)

Sharon remembers the important dates -- birthdays, holidays, the anniversary of our marriage.

But I remember this day -- the day of the promise before the promise.

This year it's flowers -- eighteen different flowers to be exact...

Here's why:

These flowers are my way of painting a portrait of my life with Sharon. Each blossom is a year of our lives. 

Some years have been big and bold. The year we were married. The years that our children were born.

Some years have been smaller. They are not as vibrant or showy. The years we have paid the bills, gone to work, cleaned the house and raised the kids.

Only one flower has thorns.

Sharon and I have had our ups and downs, as any couple will -- times where we don't always see eye to eye -- but we've had fewer than most, I think. But one year bled us like no other....

2009

The year Sharon's doctor said cancer.

But, even then, things turned out for the best. Sharon is cancer free today (and hopefully forever after), and going through that experience helped us to strip away a lot of non essential things in our lives, and of course to learn to stop and smell the roses.

The most dangerous flower is also the most fragrant.

Rose is the scent of life to me.

Large or small, vibrant or subdued, every year that Sharon has been in my life has been beautiful. And I find that as I sit here trying to recall which years were which, I can't do it. They're all jammed into one bright and beautiful arrangement, bursting at the seams, growing in every direction, overlapping one another.

And Sharon is the sunlight and the water -- the nourishing force -- that gives life and color to the bouquet of happiness and contentment that is my life.

I love you Sharon.

Thank you for saying yes.