Greetings From

Ember & Bloom

Hi friend,

Saturday was my 40th wedding anniversary.

And today marks 41 years since Gary and I went on our first date.

Forty-one years ago today, I was 18 years old and going on a blind date with a man I had never met.

I was home by 10:00.

My mother took one look at me and said, “Oh, I see you’re home early. It must have been a bad date.”

I told her, “No, it wasn’t a bad date. I’m going to marry him.”

And I did.

Anniversaries are different now

These two dates—October 3 and October 5—will always belong to Gary and me. But, of course, they feel different now.

There is no anniversary dinner to plan. No card waiting for me. No looking across the table at the man I chose all those years ago.

And yet, I still want to celebrate. I need to.

Because when I look back at our life together, I don't only see what I lost.

I see what I had.

I see the girl I was when I met him.

I see the family we created.

I see 13,202 days together.

And I see all the ways the man I love is still influencing the woman I am becoming.

So this year, for our 40th wedding anniversary and the 41st anniversary of that first date, I wanted to do something a little different.

I wanted to tell our story.

This week, I'm sharing these anniversaries in two places.

Blog: Forty Years Married, 41 Years in Love

I wrote about that first date, our very quick engagement, our wedding, the life we built—and some of the things Gary taught me that I'm still learning today.

Podcast: The Lessons We Carry​

And on the podcast, I'm talking about these anniversaries, too. Sometimes there are things that feel different when you say them out loud.

Something to Try

Remember something ordinary.

Not the wedding. Not the birthday. Not the big vacation. Something small.

The way they laughed. Something ridiculous they always said. The snack they loved. The song they turned up every single time it came on. The little thing they did that you didn't realize you would remember forever.

Give yourself a few minutes to simply remember it.

You don't have to make the memory mean anything.

You don't have to turn it into a lesson.

Just let yourself have it.

Because sometimes the ordinary moments turn out to be the ones we carry the longest.

I'll meet you here again next Monday.

Until then, take one small breath and know that it's enough.

Hugs 💜💚

-Gladys