There years ago today, I was acutely aware of what was going on around me.  Some people say it goes by fast, while others remark that it seemed like only a dream.  But not for me.  Every breath, every heart beat, every second slowly ticking.  I don't know that in my lifetime there will ever be a more important moment of my life.  So engrained are the details that there are times I am struck in awe at such a day's magnificence.  Indeed, there is no day worth more remembering than this.

Three years ago today, I married her.

 Every day I still marvel at the way we met.  A path so laughably woven and uncoordinated that only a master matchmaker could have overseen it's creation.  Indeed to believe that such an unfathomable union came about all because of a blind date, one of the most ridiculous blind dates ever imagined, is unbelievably extraordinary. Yet that is how this miraculous event came to pass.

Three years ago today, I accepted my role in that miracle whose groundwork had been laid many years before.

 

In full disclosure, I must admit that this was surely not my plan. Certainly not while entertaining the idea of enlisting in the military, nor while I was bouncing around higher education between all manner of majors. I would've never thought a delayed graduation could've offered significant benefit over walking earlier alongside all the friends and colleagues I had entered college with.  Singer and songwriter Andrew Peterson has a song that evokes a lot of what I feel on this matter.  Here are a few choice quotes from the lyrics:

"But I don't remember anymore

Who I even was before

You filled me up with love

Filled me up with love

And you help me stand 

So come on with the thunder clouds

Let the cold wind rail against us, let the rain come down

We can build a roof above us with the love we've found

We can stand our ground

So let the rain come down 

Because love binds up what breaks in two

So keep my heart so close to you

And I'll fill you up with love

Fill you up with love

And I'll help you stand [...]

This is not what I was headed for when I began

This was not my plan

It's so much better than"

Three years ago today, I set forth on a plan that was better than all my failed ones before.

As I funnel my emotions through my typing fingertips, I realize that no four words have ever meant more to me.  Many people like to elevate such golden questions like "Will you marry me?", but beneath such lofty evaluations I am left unfulfilled.  As I look over the metaphysical horizon of my life alongside her, I don't find a question to be the lingering presence on my lips.  No, as I survey the endless sea of possibilities, I am left with nothing but awe at the gravity of the weight that stands behind us.  These immortal "Ebenezer"s leave lasting testament to the wonder of what we have traversed, from where we originated, and to that which we have accomplished.  I need no destination, when I have the confidence of a devout and holy guide as imparted to us by the story our lives enact.

Indeed, the words "three years ago today" speak volumes to me.  Volumes from a book crafted by a master artisan, filled with the beautiful calligraphy of love, commitment, devotion, honesty, truth, and lastly time.  Time which builds and grows upon the roots of our history.

Three years ago today, I humbly formed a bond that grows in significance with each passing day.

 

I will not forget this life-altering transition that transpired, nor will I neglect the hands involved before it began.  I realize wholeheartedly the only credit to due my name to this elaborate design is my mere acceptance to this agreement.  All I had to do was make a choice.

Three years ago today, I choose a path that was better than any of my own imagination, I announced my need for a savior and accepted that my own wisdom and understanding was insufficient to prepare me for the future, I accepted my role in a plan that was beyond anything I could dream or believe, and ultimately I married someone that I adore so wholeheartedly and encompasses me so rapturously and whose being is so indescribably incredible that no words yet or will exist in any human lexicon to sufficiently distinguish the enormous emotional reaction she so subtly evokes through her simple, mere, and continued existence.

At the point my mind identifies all of these statements at the beginning of saying "three years ago today," I have no escape but to ponder in awe.

Sadly, I must bring this post to a close; indeed I could go on pontificating its magnitude.  Borrowing from Andrew Peterson again, I leave you with this one line from the same song that also rings true.

"I'm saving my vacation time

For Disneyland"

Less than five weeks.