Sunday, July 27, 2008

Why Don't We Talk About Rainbows?

Friday was my fifth anniversary. I had planned to write a post about my five wonderful years with my wife. I didn't get to it early, though, and I wasn't feeling the inspiration I wanted to write. Then Randy Pausch died, and I wrote that post instead. Then Saturday I found the inspiration I needed. During an afternoon spent walking around outdoors, thinking the whole time it might be ended by a sudden downpour, the group I was with noticed a rainbow, then two rainbows. It felt like a sweet promise that we would get to finish our planned event before the rain came, which was just how it came to be. As we continued to observe the rainbows, people commented on the most beautiful ones they'd ever seen, and I remembered mine.

Just after Ellie and I started dating, she picked me up at the airport in Salt Lake to take me to Idaho so I could see her play in a concert, and on the way there we drove underneath a magnificent rainbow. It was amazing because it just got bigger and bigger as we approached, and it didn't disappear when we got beneath it. I mentioned that rainbow to one of the women Saturday and she said "Was there a pot of gold?" I said just what I remembered thinking at the time - I had my treasure right here.

Cheesy? Certainly. But it was and is how I felt. So, as I look back on five years of marriage, I definitely see a lot of memories to treasure with a wonderful wife and mother of my two beautiful children. She is my best friend, the person I love most to make laugh, and my favorite person to spend time traveling with. Life can become mundane and we can overlook the small blessings when we're together all the time, but it helps me to sometimes recall how we began, looking at rainbows in wonder and awe. Once upon a time, we were not able to be together all the time, and we couldn't wait for that to change. Now we're together all the time, and I am so grateful we got that wish. So, to my wife, thank you for loving me and marrying me. Thanks for being in the pot at the end of the rainbow.

-- Robert

6 comments:

Melissa said...

You've written some wonderful things about you and Ellie in the past, but I think that was the best of all.

Happy Anniversary to both of you!

Robert said...

Thanks, Melissa. I remember how amazing we felt the day we went under that rainbow. It was like something out of a movie, only better because it was real and it was happening to us. Truly, it felt magical. I try to remember moments like that in the midst of the day to day.

le35 said...

That rainbow is one of my very favorite memories of all time.

Robert said...

Mine, too. I was glad for the reminder of it Saturday, especially as I was waiting for my "pot of gold" to come home.

Sukhaloka said...

So, so beautiful.
Right now my boy and I are considering career options all over the world, willing to give our all in the next few years just to be together comfortably and happily somewhere down the line. While hoping that everything will work out, I need reminders like this post to show me that the pot of gold at the end of my rainbow is right here.
For now, an all-too brief now, we are together.

Robert said...

My wife and I spent our first year and a half of friendship (and then dating) rarely together. In fact, the first year we saw each other once, then not again until the next year. Then we saw each other once a month for the next five months. It was very hard, but in a way it helped us each take the time we had to in order to focus on what we were trying to accomplish at the time. If we had been around each other all the time in that early stage, it might've made it harder. The years ahead may be hard in that way, as I will be spending more time away from my family in pursuit of a dream - a dream I believe we share, but which is mostly mine. For a long time I doubted it would be worth it to me, but now I know not doing it is the bigger price to pay. We both know it.

Thanks for the comment, Suki. Best of luck to you.