I Will Be Your Witness

"We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."  ~ Mrs. Clark to Mr. Clark from the movie Shall We Dance

Every year around this time, I stare at the calendar and I swear there is something I am supposed to remember. Is it somebody's birthday? Does one of us have a doctor's appointment?  Was I supposed to line up a dog sitter for a weekend getaway? 

WHAT IS IT?

Oh geez, it's our anniversary. How could I forget, again? This year, I had to go to the files and look at our marriage certificate to get the date right. It was one week later than I thought it was. Whew, I haven't totally lost it yet.  I had the right month. 

AM I AWFUL?

Let me tell you something. Since long before the day we stood on the banks of the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nevada, saying our 3 minute vows before a woman and the witness we hired the previous day, I already knew I had hopped onto a runaway train. It was rolling fast down a fun route I had never taken before, and stopping to tidy up the legal part of it was like a quick stop on the milk run of my life! (Check that off the "to do" list.) That day was much like the day before and very smiliar to the 4,015 days since then. Fun, exciting, carefree, joyous, and full of laughter. Getting married to my best friend was, for lack of a better word: awesome, but it was not the best part of that particular day. That, my friends, is a whole 'nother story. 
 

We laughed about it again this year. It has become an annual joke now for 11 years; us trying to remember this elusive date. I should add it to my his smart phone calendar this year. Or not. It does not matter. I'm married to a once-in-a-lifetime dance partner who gets it. (You should watch "Shall We Dance"!)  He gets it that the date and time  we became each other's witnesses was one of literally hundreds of thousands of fine moments in our relationship; and, although it may be Hallmark to remember, there are so many more to be celebrated. So I celebrate every day ... being witness to another person's life and my own.  

 

How about you?  Have you ever forgotten an important date?  Did you laugh about it? Did you send a card later?  Were you in the doghouse? Have you ever been on a runaway train? Do you celebrate an anniversary? Do you love to dance?  Have you ever been to Laughlin, Nevada?  Have you ever seen "Shall We Dance"?   Do you have  a witness?  Are you a witness?  Tell me!

 

love, susan