Some say it calls for iron.

Others say it calls for sweets.

I say it calls for a night on the town (and some really, really good eats – I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist the rhyme).

This weekend, The Chief and I celebrated six years of marriage.

Six?!

How is that even possible?

It feels as if both a millennia and a moment have gone past, as if time stood still and rushed further past where we stand now, all at once.

Six.

Six Septembers ago I started counting Saturdays, celebrating each week’s passing, blessing the babe of a marriage it was with weekly cheer. Six years later, I realize I don’t toast to it as often as that younger me might have hoped. I don’t stop to marvel at the beauty and the madness of tying together two lives.

So today, I stop and thank every force that brought us together.

Thank you to that long and dusty road that sent me to you.

Thank you for that feeling of home I knew instantly when I saw your face.

Thank you for the trust in that knowing, the following of that knowing, that ignorance of reason in the pursuit of my heart’s path.

Thank you for friends and strangers who told me what a wonderful man I’d found.

Thank you for neighbors who supported us every step of the way (and married us).

Thank you to the heartaches we shared that brought us in closer.

Thank you to the quiet of the woods for a gentle place to recuperate.

Thank you to all of you who joined us to make our celebration unbelievably beautiful on the outside and the inside.

Thank you, Alaska for finding my home in the most unexpected of places.

Thank you to our love for allowing us to bring this beautiful being onto earth.

Thank you to The Chief for knowing me and learning me as I change. I love you dearly.

With love,

From Alaska