The Wooden Year.

Journal, I made a promise to you. I said I wouldn’t hold anything back. Well, here’s 5 years of marriage in a nutshell- at half a decade of a life shared with another person, $#!t gets real.

I’ve seen a broad spectrum of marriages. Successful Marriages. Marriages that go down in flames. And everything in between. As for my wife and I, I get the feeling that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Though we haven’t gone through some of the certain turbulence that we will most definitely encounter on our flight-plan, I think at 5 years, we deserve a bit of credit. We have completed 5 years of an eternal vow. In the grand scheme of things, 5 years may as well be 5 minutes. BUT, 5 years is enough time to do something with. Going back to the airplane metaphor, we got this plane out of the hangar. Taxied to the runway, and got off the ground! My wife and I have two daughters. I have to admit, sometimes I wonder what my life would’ve been like if I did buy that gently used BMW instead of a ring. (Read about it in my memoir, Of Substance. Available now on Amazon) but the negative thoughts always seem to disappear. The wife and have indeed fought. Boy have we had some good ones… but it’s the grit in the sand paper that smooths out the wood right? Speaking of wood, that is the symbol of these 5 years. The 5th anniversary is the “Wood” anniversary. I prepared for this year by discreetly picking up a piece of wood on our wedding day, I kept it with the intention of turning it into a little pendant for her on our fifth. This turned out to be a good idea because the first 4 years of our marriage have been a bit of a ‘process’ in developing my career, and wood is pretty cheap. So, wooden necklace and a steak dinner to soften the potential for disappointment. Plus the traditional flowers and chocolate. It’s been a short 5 years. I don’t really know where the time went. We’ve learned enough lessons to know that there are more coming.

Marriage really is a funny thing. The truth is, I don’t really know the woman I married. She pleasantly surprises me every day with new things. I really lucked out, Journal. I have the best wife a guy could ask for. And my wife got the best block of wood I could find.