anniversary – Jennifer Michie

May 29, 2023 / 0 Comments

Nineteen

I saw an interesting video on “Meet Cutes NYC” earlier this month, “Mailroom Love 💌”, and the filmmaker asked the couple he was talking to, what’s the secret to 50 years together? And the woman’s (Alice) response was that “it’s much harder to like a person than to love a person”. And she LIKES her husband, Geoffrey.

That gave me pause. Love is a word so easily bandied around. And you can love someone to the depths of your soul, but that doesn’t mean you can be with them on a day to day basis. Liking someone is much harder. Continuing to get up every day and not only love but like the person you are with is sometimes a difficult challenge.

I like the person I am with. I like him in the valleys and I like him on the mountain and I like him as we traverse this space and I like him as we have continued to grow up together. All relationships are not smooth sailing, seasons come and go, storms blow in and out, but we continue to weather them together and I LIKE him and I LOVE him and I couldn’t ask for more than that.

So, here’s to 19 years of marriage with someone that I truly love and really LIKE and respect and value and who still makes me laugh and is the only person I want to be in the trenches with.

{“Robert Redford, US actor, and Jane Fonda, US actress, cuddling as they pose for a studio portrait, issued as publicity for the film, ‘Barefoot in the Park’, USA, 1967. The Neil Simon comedy, directed by Gene Saks, starred Redford as ‘ Paul Bratter’, and Fonda as ‘Corie Bratter’. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)” | Pinned HERE}

May 29, 2022 / 0 Comments

Eighteen

Eighteen years ago today, you took my hand and placed it in yours and we’ve been holding hands ever since.

Here’s to the next chapter in our adventure.

{Publicity still of Myrna Loy and William Powell for “After the Thin Man”, 1936. Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}

May 29, 2021 / 0 Comments

Seventeen

Seventeen years ago, on a balmy Saturday afternoon, I walked down an aisle to join you and we’ve been walking together ever since. Here’s to seventeen more years of being side by side.

{Jane Fonda & Robert Redford in a publicity still for Barefoot in the Park, 1967 // Pinned HERE}

May 29, 2020 / 2 Comments

Sixteen

Today we celebrate sixteen years of marriage. How did sixteen years go by so quickly? Mr. Michie is the only person I want to be on this adventure with. Whatever the road ahead holds, we face it together, just as we have always done.

I think that Henry Fonda said it best, as Frank Beardsley in Yours, Mine, and Ours, because in all the monotony at times of day to day life, there is still magic to be found with the person you love by your side, it’s there in the little things:

Until you’re ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud. All the crazy haircuts in the world won’t keep it turning. Life isn’t a love in, it’s the dishes and the orthodontist and the shoe repairman and… ground round instead of roast beef. And I’ll tell you something else: it isn’t going to a bed with a man that proves you’re in love with him; it’s getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful everyday world with him that counts.

{Image // Dean Martin with his wife, Jeanne, at home, 1958. Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images HERE}

May 29, 2019 / 2 Comments

Fifteen

“ Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In the Art of Marriage, the little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say ‘I love you’ at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon; it should continue through all the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have the wings of an angel. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is finding rooms for things of the spirit. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner. It is discovering what marriage can be, at its best.”
The Art of Marriage by Wilferd A. Peterson

Today, I celebrate fifteen years of marriage with Mr. Michie. I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side on this journey, but him. Here’s to another fifteen!

{Image: Bogart & Bacall // Pinned HERE}

May 29, 2018 / 0 Comments

Fourteen

“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” ℘ Audrey Hepburn

Fourteen years ago today I walked down the aisle in the church that my parents were married in and my grandparents before that and Mr. Michie took my hand in his. Fourteen years later, he still has my hand in his and I still have a serious crush on this red-headed man of mine! Here’s to the next fourteen! ♥

{Paul Newman & Joanne Woodard HERE // Pinned HERE}

May 29, 2017 / 0 Comments

Thirteen

See how in their veins all becomes spirit:
into each other they mature and grow.
Like axles, their forms tremblingly orbit,
round which it whirls, bewitching and aglow.
Thirsters, and they receive drink,
watchers, and see: they receive sight.
Let them into one another sink
so as to endure each other outright.

The Lovers, Rainer Maria Rilke

Today I celebrate thirteen years of being Mr. Michie’s bride. We have been by each other’s sides since we were teenagers. I’m happy beyond measure and blessed that it’s his hand I get to hold as we navigate our way together on the road of life. Here’s to another THIRTEEN and all the adventures that lie ahead! I LOVE YOU!

{Image found HERE // Pinned HERE}

May 29, 2016 / 0 Comments

Twelve

Variation on the Word Sleep

I would like to watch you sleeping.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

℘ Margaret Atwood

Twelve years ago today, in the church where my parents and my grandparents before them were married, I walked down the aisle to become Mr. Michie’s wife. Here’s to the next twelve, I love you!

{Image from the NY Times}

May 29, 2015 / 1 Comment

11 Years

The number 11; two little stalks standing side-by-side. One stalk needs the other, or they wouldn’t be 11. After 11 years, I still need my other half.

I don’t follow numerology, but I know in terms of it that 11 is considered a master number, because it is a double digit of one number. In our 11 years of marriage, I think we have mastered a few things ourselves. I am blessed to have married my best friend. A person who knows me inside and out. I have married someone who takes care of me and who makes me happy.

After 11 years, he still makes my heart flutter, he still makes me laugh and he still makes me feel like I’m the only one in the world. I love you Mr. Michie, Happy Anniversary.

{Image Pinned HERE}

June 3, 2014 / 0 Comments

A Secret!

Well, I have a secret to share. We celebrated 10 glorious years of marriage last week in the breathtaking city of Copenhagen. Mr. Michie and I decided to have a true break and stepped away from our computers. I normally write on the spur of the moment, but last week I planned two posts to go out and we quietly slipped away to Denmark.

It was a welcome little mini-moon and I didn’t want to come back! I have so much to share with you and I don’t want to bore you to death, so I am going to attempt to summarize our trip over 2 posts. The above picture was from the dreamy Nyhaven section of Copenhagen where Hans Christian Andersen used to live!

Stay tuned, there’s more to come…