Today is our anniversary. My husband, Steven, and I have been married to each other for 49 years. 
The operative phrase is “to each other”.
 
We both had been married before.
We both had gone through a divorce.
And we both had learned that if it’s not right, get out. 
 
When Steven and I first re-met at our 10th high school reunion, I was immediately smitten. I never really had the courage to ask him if the feeling was mutual. It’s probably more accurate to say, I grew on him!

There was ONE thing upon which we agreed as soon as we started seeing each other steadily and that was that if our relationship wasn’t making each of us happy, we would end it.  

So, does that mean that every day over the last almost five decades we have made each other happy every single day? I think not. 
 
Has anyone aggravated me more than he has?
HARDLY.
And I know I have aggravated him more than anyone else ever has because he tells me so countless times.
 
What has kept us together – besides shared finances, homes, cars, and lifestyles?
Chemistry? FOR SURE.
Similar values and political beliefs? MOST OF THE TIME. 
Kids? HEE HEE! THAT COULD BE A WHOLE OTHER BOOK, MUCH LESS AN ADDITIONAL COLUMN!
A firm belief, as cheesy as it sounds, that we are soul mates? ABSOLUTELY.
And a core realization that if we couldn’t make it with each other, we couldn’t make it with anyone.
 
We still have our frustrations, our annoyances, our wanting-to-pull-our-hair-out-of-our-heads impatience with each other.

He’s very, very clean, but also very, very disorganized and messy – piles of papers, clothes and toiletries everywhere.I can easily function amid dust and crumbs, but am extremely organized. There are no piles I can’t dismantle. My lists have lists.

He is NEVER on time.
I am ALWAYS on time or too early. 
Therefore, whenever we leave the house together for a shared event, we always start-off in a fight. He accuses me of being rigid and inflexible. I accuse him of being deliberately passive-aggressive and slow moving.
 
He likes bland, plain food. 
For me, the saltier the better; the saucier the better, the cheesier the better. 
 
He is never hungry.
I am hungry all the time.
 
He tells me I harp on things way too long and in too much detail.
He tells me I have a long memory for hurts and disappointments and a too short memory for joy.
 
I tell him I get tired of looking for things he has lost or forgotten where he has put them, that he has no sense of direction and won’t look at a map and I still can’t understand that for someone so logical how he can’t remember the difference between texts and e mails! Geez.
 
However, we have:

overcome hurdles,survived profound losses,and re-surfaced after waging fierce battles,still together.  

My husband is:

the wind beneath my sails,my profound sense of security,my most consistent source of support,and I think he would say the same about me. 

We are each other’s ROOTS:

We started-off being born in the same hospital six days apart.We spent second, third, fourth and fifth grade in the same classroom.And we attended the same high school.

Long live “The Pastor Pair” and

long live all the other marriages that flourish and endure among impossible odds too.
 
And Keep Preserving Your Bloom,

PS: I finally plowed through one of the romance novels I promised myself I would read. My choice: 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand. I enjoyed the plot’s twists and turns, but I still don’t understand why the two lovers didn’t leave their respective partners and get together initially, thus saving all the drama????