The Nature of Union

I met my husband when we were both freshmen at the University of Utah. He was only eighteen years old at the time, and I was even younger–sixteen. We fell for each other pretty hard, but it was four years until we got married. (His idea. He wanted us to graduate first.)

For the first ten years of our marriage, I never even noticed he wasn’t perfect. The next ten years were spent resigning myself to the fact that he wasn’t perfect. The following ten taught me to accept the fact that he wasn’t perfect. And today (eight years into the next ten), I appreciate the fact that he isn’t perfect.

So. We’ve come full circle. Except that this time the “not noticing he isn’t perfect” comes with knowledge and appreciation. I see his imperfections, and I like them. They are familiar, endearing, and they balance out my own. I need that. Working in unison, we bring one another from either extreme toward the center, and both of us come closer to getting it right.