27 Years

Today the man I love turns the corner into his late 20's.  He pointed this out in the wee hours of this morning as we arrived home from D.C., from picking my brother up.  I called him an old man.  I teased him about a long running joke about his birthday.  He came behind me and scooped me up and told me I was an incorrigible tease.  And by the light of the Christmas tree he got this year's first birthday kiss.  

Today I have seen this man who I often call a boy because he's still growing get up and start a load of laundry without being asked.  Something I sometimes take for granted but appreciate so much.  This past year has been a rough one, but we keep hanging on, praying the ride will slow and even out.  And he's changing from boy to man bit by bit and it's an amazing thing to witness.  He's discovering how to show love through small actions and thoughtful gestures. 

I have never loved anyone as much as I do G.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the senselessness of it.  How irrational it seems.  Yet the nonsensical-ness of it is precisely where the beauty of it lies.  In the moments of madness when I'm in the shower laughing because he's said something funny even though he knows it's dangerous because I have to lean against the wall, unable to breathe.  He does this on purpose I am sure, as he seems to delight in it.  

So today we'll bake a cake and we'll light sparklers and we'll celebrate this life that is so intertwined with my own that I cannot imagine me without him.  And I try to think of words to express what he means to me and I come up blank because I've said them all before and yet, he is the life of me, the very spark that can cause me to come to life for better or for worse.  

G, I love you to the moon and back.  More than all the clover leafs on all the hills of Ireland.  More than any speck of dust in all of this infinite universe.  Happy Birthday my dear Mr. S.B.