...because it doesn't reflect how long Lisa and I have truly been together, let alone what we've lived through. Yes, we got married in 2003, the summer after I graduated from college. However, our journey in life didn't get off the ground until 1989, when I began my Jumbo Video stalking career of redheads. It was in this year that I saw a tall, skinny, beautiful redhead, working behind the counter checking out Hollywood hits and back-door suburban porn.
Today, as we celebrate our 8th wedding anniversay driving towards Niagara Falls with our six and one year old children in tow, I'm left wondering.........what in the hell did I do in this life to deserve any of this??? The last few days, as I sat across my wife, son and daughter, I would ask myself this question. I would think, "I wonder if my parents thought the same thing?" as they drove to Florida, ate dinner, brought us to school, etc. Of course they did! Any parent with a conscience and a heart would have. You can't predict the feeling or the moment - it just comes to you. The awakening occurs when you look across the table and see yourself in the past. You want to know the secret to the fountain of youth? Have children!
When I explain to Aiden, my very intuitive six-year-old, how he came to be, my wife and I always say "because God wanted us to have you".
Without getting into a religious debate, my explaination behind this non-scientific theory is that - why else would I be so blessed as to have two healthy, happy, beautiful children? Was it the loonie I put in the homeless guy's hat? The chocolate's I sold door-to-door when I was 10? No. There really isn't an explaination, except that I met the right person at the right time, that together, we would create two young people that, covered in spaghetti sauce, chocolate, cookies, ice cream, and god-knows-what, the ones sitting across from us at the dinner table are the reasons why we came to be husband and wife on the dock at the Glen House on a very hot, summer August day, surrounded by our best friends and family.
They are the reflection of what was, what is, and what can be. For that, I am grateful, not to God, Allah, the sun, moon and stars, but to my wife, my best friend, and my soulmate. Thank you Lisa, for being my best friend, for always being there, and for being my biggest fan. My ego is only as big as you let it:)
I love you!