Stranded

If you had to be stranded on a desert island with only one person for the rest of your life, and that person couldn't be your husband, who would you choose? If you could choose anyone. Any famous stud, any secret crush, any long-lost love.  Who would you choose?

Someone asked me this question recently and I had a very strong, immediate response to it. As I've pondered it further over time, the force of my initial conviction has only grown. The shocking answer is that if I had to be stranded, for the rest of the my life, with someone other than Keith, the person I would choose is...nobody.

And I mean that so sincerely. I've already chosen my anyone. Keith is it for me. My best friend, my love, my confidante, my partner, my greatest challenge, my biggest fan. I waited a long time to get married.  I waited because I knew what I wanted, what I was looking for, and I knew that I'd rather be alone than not have it. It took a long time to find him. It was worth it. I chose so well.

And I honestly don't believe, practically, in the whole idea of soul-mates. It's never made sense to me, logically, that there is only one person in this entire wide world who is absolutely meant for each of us, only one person we were destined to share our lives with. I'm sure there are other choices I could have made and been fine, been happy even. It's not so much that I was looking for The One.

But at the same time I believe, firmly and constantly, with everything in me, that Keith is the only man in this world who could make me as incredibly happy as he does. That he's the only one I want to love and be loved by, that he's the one who can see me just as clearly, and graciously, as he does. I believe he is the one for me, and the one for always. And if I can't have him, I don't want anybody else. And so I keep choosing him, daily.

And if you think about it, marriage is already a whole lot like being stranded on a desert island.  Not so much the isolation part, but definitely the being stuck with each other. Because both of us believe our marriage is forever, there's no jumping ship, no getting out or getting away. We are in it together, we are in it no matter what. We choose each other, over and over again.

Plus, there's this weird way in which marriage creates a separate little world for the two people in it. We come in contact with lots of people every day, we share life with many that we care about, but no one else can experience or even understand the unique little world that we live in. It is like our own desert island in a really beautiful way. A place for just us two, a world that belongs entirely and only to us- and that becomes what we make it and reflects all the hard work we put into it. And there's no one else I would deign to share it with.

So happy birthday, my love. Thank you for being such a good and strong and kind and wonderful man, the man I chose so well. The only man I could ever stand to be stranded on a desert island with. And thank you for choosing me.