August 21

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary.

The pages of this website are peppered with references to my husband or to his website, but none so far have been devoted strictly to him, and to how wonderful he has made our marriage and our life in general. Every time our anniversary rolls around I am reminded again of what a blessing he is in my life; this year, I finally have a chance to publicize it.

I could fill every page of this website with words of love for my sweet husband, I could easily rhyme off every virtue he possesses and every positive attribute he has, like the nobility of his character and the sharpness of his mind, or the way he smiles at the world with a benevolence I have not often seen before. I could brag about the romance of his soul or the love I see reflected in his eyes when I walk into the room, or I could simply and confidently say that I have found in this man the funniest, most delightful, most kind hearted person that I have ever known. I could praise his artistic spirit, his original view of beauty and his unparalleled morality, and I could certainly boast that no other woman is as loved or as cherished as he makes me feel.

But I love him for much, much more than that. Everything he is he has made himself into. He is a self made man who knew what character meant and how to achieve it. He has cultivated honesty and nobility and wisdom in himself so that now it appears as though they were always there in him, naturally, from birth, like some gift from God that he can neither take credit for nor accept praise for. But I know how hard he worked to become the man he is. And I know how hard he works still.

His greatest strength is his infinite patience, which seems be tested daily at this point in our lives. Yet no matter how trying things become, he always reminds me that he has his priorities in the right place, and knows better than I do what to value and what to ignore. He has the uncanny ability to see through the fog that can engulf us from time to time, and to envision a bright future that is made even brighter by his steadfast belief in the certainty of our happiness there. I look to him for the strength I lack sometimes and the courage I wish I had, and every time I look I am more than amply rewarded.

And he has the power to do something no one else has ever managed to do: leave me at a loss for words. As often as I've played around with language and styled my sentences in clever ways to get across my point, I find myself speechless now, run out of words to express the depth of my admiration for him. All I am left with are words of gratitude, and inadequate praise.

I wouldn't have this website without his help and his guidance, his support and his love. I wouldn't have anything to write about it were it not for the joy of marriage he has given me, and for allowing me to prove to him, slowly, that he was right to risk his heart with me and believe me when I promised him a lifetime of love and devotion. Every word I write on this site is my tribute to him, to my greatest inspiration, my most stalwart fan, my dearest companion and my best ever friend.

I married him on August 21 knowing what a wise and gentle soul he is, knowing how sweet and funny and kind he is, but I had no idea how much he would change my life, and how impossible it would be for me to imagine my life without him. What I know now is that I'd marry him a million times more.

Happy Anniversary, my love.

He is a self made man who knew what character meant and how to achieve it. He has cultivated honesty and nobility and wisdom in himself so that now it appears as though they were always there in him, naturally, from birth, like some gift from God that he can neither take credit for nor accept praise for. But I know how hard he worked to become the man he is. And I know how hard he works still.