The Sixth – A Chicago Anniversary Celebrated
Six.
Start the counting with feist from 1 2 3 4 and more and more.
But also start before the moment when the counting started, because every event has a precursor. Maybe two. Likely more.
Long ago, years before this date September 13, 2009 and years even before the date that started the tally toward today being the sixth anniversary – that is when Nicole and I met in Chicago.
Perhaps inauspicious, in the lobby of The Apartment People where I was transitioning to real estate after working for years with social justice agencies and another non-profit called United Press International. I don’t think she was my first client, but time would prove she was by far the most important.And so today, six years after we gathered on a hilltop to be wed by a Sioux Lakota shaman named Daniel Running Bear, we maintain our pace together, happily united as we sprint, walk, amble and move forward together with two boys whose ages more or less add up to this year’s tally.
Our wedding occurred on a beautifully sunny day on a hillside in Telluride, Colorado. Taking place in mid September, we easily could have had snow rather than sun, as was the case the night we arrived in this delightful out-of-the-way hamlet earlier the week we were wed.
But time passed, family arrived, and the clouds cooperated to billow and not bluster the Saturday we knotted. Thus cooperation would seem to mark the start of our marriage. And it has been a key ingredient since.
Six.
A brief google survey indicates that anniversary number six is symbolized by the calla lily. And who better to represent the calla lily than Georgia O’Keefe.
Aside from calla lily, gifts trend toward iron and candy, a somewhat odd combo. Traditional gifts are amethyst and modern gifts are wood. So a person with far more planning skills than I would have gotten a handcrafted wooden box that couched an amethyst piece of jewelry.
More important than the gifts is what the gifts are supposed to celebrate – lasting and true love, dedication and loyalty.
A few weeks ago Nicole, the boys and I met up with a band of wolves I used to roam with in college. It had been years since I had seen most of these guys, and they had never met Nicole. One by one they approached me to tap my arm as if in emphasis to say, “Your wife is so beautiful.”
Which she is. But also she is talented and creative, hardworking and reliable, funny and dedicated. She also is my truest and bestest friend.
Telluride Hillside Upon Our Wedding Day
I am a big believer in efforts, not luck. But it was luck pure and simple that had our paths cross more than nine years ago in the lobby of an apartment rental service on Chicago’s north side.
That or the artful intercession of angels. Either way, I am grateful for the result.
Happy Anniversary to my lovely wife and best friend.
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