My Better Half

I had to borrow this quote from my sister Rivka.  Partly because it's so beautiful and partly because it describes my thoughts as I was going over our summer's activities, wishing our camera had been working when Michael and I were away celebrating our 12th anniversary.  In lieu of a pictoral recapping of a wonderful and much needed 4 day escape to Sunriver (where we snuggled, rode bikes, swam, stand-up paddle boarded on the Deschutes, read to each other, raced around on jet skiis, and refreshed ourselves and our friendship), here is my second on Kik's post as I reflect on our years of marriage:

"Walter Cotman always spoke of Mary as Elton's "better half." In spite of his sulks and silences, she would not go so far as "better." That she was his half, she had no doubt at all. He needed her. At times she knew with a joyous ache that she completed him, just as she knew with that same joy that she needed him and he completed her. How beautiful a thing it was, she thought, to be a half, to be completed by such another half! When had there ever been such a yearning of halves toward each other, such a longing, even in quarrels, to be whole? And sometimes they would be whole. Their wholeness came upon them as a rush of light, around them and within them, so that she felt they must be shining in the dark."

Wendell Berry, A Jonquil for Mary Penn

Twelve years down, forever to go!