Just Getting Started

The attractive woman seated next to me on the plane was asleep. I was stuck in the middle seat – I had offered her the window to score some points with her. She had a pillow tucked up against the window, with a flimsy blanket wrapped around her. Careful not to wake her, I carefully lifted the edge of the blanket and slid my hand underneath until I reached her leg. She didn’t stir…

Wait a second! You thought?  After all this time? It was my wife! You people. {shakes head} Do you think I would take a middle seat for anyone other than my EC?

My EC, my loving Eternal Companion and I are traveling to celebrate our 25th Anniversary. Yup, the big silver. We are pretty happy about it, but I have noticed that the farther away you get from the church, the bigger deal it is to people.

25 years? Congratulations!
That’s amazing!
How did you ever do it?

In my mind, 25 years is great, but it is just a “blip” when I’m planning on spending forever with her. I mean, 6 billion years from now, 25 is going to seem kinda cute, rather than amazing!


While I was watching her sleep, I studied her face. We started out at the same age, but she looks younger than I do now. Still beautiful, still fascinating. Sure, there are some new signs that shows that time is moving on, but for having 5 kids, there should be more. When she’s sleeping, she still looks like a little girl. (And she’s going to kill me for this)

Like most women, I know that it took a tremendous leap of faith for her to decide to hitch her wagon to me – perhaps the greatest leap of faith that she will ever make. I was a destitute student. Liberal arts. Unemployed. Goofy. But, she must have seen, or felt, the inklings of potential, because she said yes. If there are times that she still questions her judgement, I don’t fault her, and I don’t want to know.

My EC invested her present, as well as her potential future with me. She had dreams of becoming a mother, to stay home with her kids, to be righteous active family in the gospel, and be married to a strong priesthood holder. And she expected it to last forever – and still does.  What a gamble – to stake everything on a goofy BYU student. What a tremendous expression of faith in me – that she felt, 25 years ago, that I might be the one she could get there with. (Too often, for too many people, it proves to be a bad bet, or things change and it doesn’t work out. But I have seen many more men blow their part of the bargain than I have women – In my opinion, women take the much bigger risk)

In return, I try to be, and do, those things that she needs. Those are the things that I signed up for. My single greatest responsibility and priority is to do anything and everything I can to take care of her, and provide her with those things she needs – forever. So far, it is working. In return she strengthens me, supports me, teaches me, loves me, and exists as a daily reminder that this earth life is wonderful, and that it can be eternally.

I am not all that interested in living forever if she is not with me.

25 years = half my life. Sometimes it does seem like forever, but it has gone by in a flash. An eternity in a heartbeat.

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