Today is our 10th anniversary. Who knew, all those years ago, what today would bring? We’ve had our share of trouble and joys. We’ve smiled, laughed, cried, and argued. We’ve stayed up late, and gone to bed early. We’ve worked and we’ve played. We’ve studied and serve, schooled and learned. We had and we’ve lost.

But through it all we have loved.

Of love, Christian philosopher C.S. Lewis said, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable” .

And so, ten years ago, we chose to love, to be vulnerable, to have our hearts wrung and broken. And from our journey we have learned. We’ve grown. We’ve changed. We’ve become more than the sum our individual selves. We’ve become one.

Touched by An Angel

Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free .

And together we are free. Free to experience this life together. Free to ride the waves. Free to say in those moments, “It figures.”

Here’s to 10 years. Here’s to oh so many more.

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