Golden

It takes two pigheaded stubborn old mules to make a life together for fifty years. But my husband and I survived the upswings and downturns that made of our lives with each other a roller coaster ride of emotions and led us to where we are today. Any reflection on how it works or to what does one attribute reaching such a milestone would lead to trite sentimental answers of love, fate, soul mate, or nauseous clichés written on greeting cards. That is not the answer because growing together is a process that is as individualized as the two who share one lifetime.

I dare say if we were asked to make two lists about the other one – “Qualities I Admire,” and “Qualities I Abhor,” the second list would far exceed the first. It comes down to deciding that I will stay with you for my lifetime in spite of your flaws knowing that I am far from perfect too. I can live with your numbers 3 and 7 because of my 6 and 4 and in the long run, together we are perfect 10s.

I don’t believe it was written in the stars that we would be together for 50 years, we didn’t anticipate that we would nor was there any desire to work as hard as the job turned out to be. Maybe there was no yin yang, no undying passion, no twist of fate, no potion or no incantation that forcibly controlled our destiny. But we grew together by sharing the good and the bad, the easy and the hard, and yes, the love and the hate. In the process we became one – not only as a complement to the other, but as a completion of the other. There is no one else I want or need to make me a complete person. It doesn’t work because it’s magic; it’s magic because it works.