One bright morning a childhood ago, Jana and I knelt across an altar, our right hands clasped in one of the secret grips of Melchizedek. A kind old man proclaimed that by God’s authority we were “sealed for time and all eternity.” With this ritual, we began our life journey together.
We stripped the green aprons and masonic robes and stepped, blinking, out of the Temple and into the City of the Angels. Santa Monica Boulevard was down the hill and connected us to the 405, which went on, connecting so many places. We held hands as we walked the temple grounds and had no idea of what lay in store for us, but we had our dreams and our love and that impenetrable bubble that only encases young lovers and fervent believers. We were 21.
Seventeen years later, and the bubble is there, but is no longer impenetrable. We’ve grown up together. I’ve traveled with several Janas and she with a number of Mes, some worse than others. I wonder sometimes if marriages don’t grow up the way children do. If so, then our relationship is transitioning out of adolescence with all of its awkwardness and immaturity and is moving purposefully towards the gate into adulthood.
We’ve weathered several storms. We rejected the authority that sealed us together and replaced it with one of our own making. We have chosen to let the world in, and this is at times glorious and at others painful. Sometimes it causes us to loosen our grip, sometimes it makes us hang on in deep fear. I’ve held Jana’s hand through childbirth, grueling operations and a PhD program. She’s held mine through depression, insomnia and chronic pain. There have been times when we’ve felt around for the other’s hand in desperation and not found it. In a few instances we’ve brushed away the hand that was reaching out. But mostly, we’ve enjoyed the comfortable and familiar hold of two pilgrims who have walked long together on this sacred and perilous journey of life, and I hope that we will walk together for a long time yet.
I am grateful to be married to Jana. She is my partner in so many endeavors, my companion in life, my sister, my priestess, my lover, my friend. We are fellow pilgrims, she and I. I look forward to many, many more opportunities to journey and worship with her.
Here are links to previous anniversary posts, and a couple of odes to Jana:
anniversary. (2002)
Where We Went on Our Anniversary. (2006)
Boston, Day 0. (2007)
A Story for Valentine’s Day (Valentine’s 2008)
Because Jana is Full of Awesome (Christmas 2008)
