Twenty-seven years married and 32 years together, we are still holding hands. We’d like to still be holding hands 20 years from now and maybe even a bit longer than that, but time being what it is, we also find that we need to discuss the point on the horizon where we’ll be denied the other’s hand. Our ultimate demise is a difficult subject to tackle, as even speaking of it could hasten its arrival. Silly, these archaic superstitions, but as much as we desire to consider ourselves reasonable, we still run afoul of such illogical sentiments. Even with this knowledge, we push out the day further and further certain we will soon address things and finally put that looming issue behind us. Until then, we live in the delight of being together and happy for so long.

Another subject with a due date in the future is our retirement, and regarding this, we not only talk but make plenty of plans. I suppose saving money is a lot easier than caring for a will. At the top of our list as we move closer to retirement is to get ourselves back into Europe. We’ve looked at our options here in the United States and for a long time considered Oregon as a sure bet, but subsequent visits to Europe proved to us that we could have much cheaper rent over there with far better public transportation along with proximity to international airports, a wide variety of foodstuffs, and cultural amenities that far exceed what we’d be able to travel to in the U.S. on a limited budget.

So, what do retirement and death have to do with celebrating an anniversary? This is one more of the many days we consider our future and note the cycling of another year shared in love. As we reflect on the incredible nature of having spent so many moments of the previous years side-by-side, we dream of what the next ones can have in store for us. We are certain, as certain as fickle humans can be, that we’ll be spending the rest of our lives together, and with that sense of surety, we want to best organize our limited time remaining. The sooner we can reach retirement, the better. We find that we are well suited to not needing a career to entertain ourselves and would rather read, create, weave, play, cook, explore, and discover things we don’t know. To honor those aspects of our personalities, we need the time to get out and walk, walk for days across the landscape. We need time to revel in our fortunate lives that brought us into contact with one another, and that means we need to spend even more time together.

By the way, while I was writing this, Caroline came up behind me and said she thought we’d posted a similar photo in the past. I was already ahead of her and had this link from 2005 ready to share.