Turning the page of a calendar to a new month always inspires a moment of reflection. In one glance, a whole month's worth of special days, activities, involvements, expectations, experiments, revelations and disappointments are right before your eyes.
But this month was different. Turning the page this time, the new month coming up contained a very special day – our wedding anniversary. And when I saw a big star on the date that we were married, my heart started pounding.
How thoughtful of my husband! He had marked the page before I had even seen it! Why?
And then my imagination kicked into high gear. What if he was planning something really special? Because of the pandemic, we hadn't been able to celebrate our anniversary for the past few years the way we usually would enjoy doing. But now, with things getting a little bit more back to normal, maybe he had made plans for something super nice, such as going to our favorite restaurant.
Or maybe … my thoughts went to new possibilities. Maybe he had made special plans to go away for the weekend. Wouldn’t that be fantastic! I pictured where we might be going, and had already decided which dress to pack so I could wear it for our fancy anniversary dinner …when he walked into the kitchen.
“Thank you, honey,” I said. “I noticed the star on the calendar for next month. That is so thoughtful of you.” Maybe he would tell me now what he was planning!
He looked at me with a smile, but his big brown eyes were blank. “You’re welcome, love,” he answered. “But I’ve never seen you get so excited about having the pest control company come to spray.”
My heart sank. I was completely wrong! He hadn’t remembered our special day, I realized. He was just caught up in the day-to-day details of our daily life.
Yet, when I looked at him, images of the days we had shared over the years flashed through my mind: the hurricane we survived, good days like promotions and scary days like waiting for biopsy results … all of them were special. I said a prayer to God, and thanked him for blessing me with so many special days — with such a special husband.
Wrapping my arms around him, I said: “How could I not be excited, when every day is a special day with you?”
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This is part of the series called “The Human Being Fully Alive” found here.
