Full Circle: 10 Years.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” (Dr. Seuss)

They tell you you should do something special for your anniversaries. And we surely tried to plan something special for our 10 year anniversary. But life and COVID19 got in the way and our trip to the Old Country got canceled. But something special we are doing. Something memorable and unique: surely we will never forget our first ever celebration in confinement, at home, with stores all closed to the point we couldn’t even buy each other gifts, and with the flower man delivering flowers with surgical gloves on. What a hoot! A story to tell our nephews, if they should ever forget … 

I can’t even begin to tell you about what a wild ride these ten years have been! We’ve had it all, as life is such a party… Enumerating everything we’ve been through, all the storms and triumphs, feels like maybe cheapening the beauty of all that has been … More than anything else, I want to remember these ten years as the best part of my life. The part where I grew and finally matured. The part where I truly became whole. The part where I gave all that I could give from a deep, deep place in my heart. 

I never believed in truly happy marriages before. I knew some couples, very few, in my life that came close, but true happiness, so much of it that it stops your breathing, I thought a product of imagination of really gifted writers. But I was humbled and blessed with this man in my life who gave me that and much more during these amazing years.

If I have one advice for anyone (should anyone be looking for it) about what a true happy partnership is, having learned what I have learned in the past 10 years, I would say this: figure out who you are. Figure out who you are, and what you are about. Figure out who you are when you’re happy, when you’re sad, when you’re enraged, and when you’re at peace. Figure out who you are when things are easy and when they are hard. Figure out who you are when you cry and when you laugh the hardest. Then, find the person who makes you be the best of you in every situation, every day, always. The person that brings nothing but the best you to the table. Every. Day. In. Every. Situation. No matter how good, or how bad. Then, you’re a winner. 

Happy anniversary, babe! Thank you for letting me do me every second of the past 315,569,220 seconds of our lives. I can only hope you feel the same … Looking forward to many, many more open and closed spaces with you … 

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The past 10 years have been like a boomerang for us, location-wise: our together-journey started 10 years ago today in Greensboro, NC. That year we moved away to Utah for most of our years together. Today, we are sitting across from each other in our living room in Pittsboro, NC. Full circle, indeed ... 

In-between those locations, we traveled a lot. Because travel is what we do that makes us both happy. We never took it for granted, but we don't, more so today than ever. 

Today, we are home. Today, we travel through the memories we made in these past 10 years. Here’s a look at the past 10 anniversaries where our freedom was a little bit less confined:

April 2011: Bryce Canyon, UT: we got to our hotel (Ruby's) almost at midnight to find out they were still closed for the winter season, and not open quite yet for the summer season. Although ... we had booked it online the week before. Luckily, the Best Western across the street was open. 

2012: Pojorata, Romania: this is the backyard of where I grew up in the Moldovan Carpathians. I was dying for us to go hike that mountain behind our house, but we were there for 4 days and it rained non-stop. Aa. got really sick, too. 

2013: Zion National Park, UT: We hiked the Zion Canyon trail not knowing there are portions of the trail missing. We had to cross skinny metal bridges that bridged the rocks with hundreds of feet of abyss below us to come up to this view of the Zion Mt. Carmel road below.

2014: Las Vegas, NV: We spent some time in Vegas and we were not alone. My sister came along for the ride. 

2015: London, the UK: We spent our fifth anniversary in London. We loved The Westminster Abbey the best, but the gin and the tea and the food were amazing, too. We loved it so much, we wanted to go see all the isles for our 10th anniversary, but ... 

2016: Utah Lake, UT: I was only two months away from my open-heart surgery this year, so we could not go far from home. But we went shooting (Canons, not rifles) around this gorgeous lake as nature was waking up and snow was melting ... 

2017: Moab, UT: We spent our anniversary weekend in one of our favorite national parks with dear friends who were visiting us from NC. Now, we are almost neighbors, living in the same small town, since we moved back to NC ourselves. 

2018: Chapel Hill, NC: we chased one of our favorite chefs, Brandon Sharp, from CA to NC, as he relocated here, after we moved back. Dinner at The Carolina Inn. (Brandon now has his own restaurant in Chapel Hill and our dinner tonight comes from him, too). 

2019: Charleston, SC: Magnolia Plantation was a dream. Humidity, marshes, Spanish moss, live oaks - we are back in the South and my heart is happy still. 

2010: Greensboro, NC: We lit this candle on our wedding day. I can only hope and pray that we continue to keep it burning just as bright as then for many, many, many more Aprils to come. Help me do that, babe! Happy 10th! Much love!