One year ago tonight, I stood holding your shaking hands under a very old tree in the starlight, and said these words:
I promise to love you, guide you, and protect you.
I promise to support you in honoring your existing oaths and responsibilities.
I will always desire what is best for you.
I will communicate with honesty.
I will speak truth to you.
I will endeavor to take the path of least harm for our life together.
With guidance from our ancestors and deities,
It is my will to make these promises to you, so long as our love shall last.
I meant every word then, and I still mean those words now.
In the past twelve months, we’ve done a stressfully large amount of things — we bought a house (a first for both of us), moved cities, and began to settle into our home here bit by bit.
We’ve sat up countless hours with Alex at the hospital.
We’ve comforted crying kids and driven hundreds of miles between school and home.
We’ve done things alone that we wanted to do with companionship, and soldiered on knowing we’d be reunited soon.
We brought a cat and two new kittens into our household, upending our sleep schedule for months.
We cried together through The Force Awakens and the special screening of Labyrinth and Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
We’ve worked hard to build a life that makes space for emotions and rest and good communication, even though the swirling mass of Things we need to accomplish each week can be daunting.
We’ve endured miscommunications, misunderstandings, and hurt feelings, because our devotion to our relationship and the deep care we have for each other has carried us through it, even when the other person’s perspective seemed so impossible to understand.
My lovely Cheshire kitty, I love you with my whole self: heart, mind, strength, soul, and body. I am blessed beyond measure to have you in my life.
