horse farm-345, originally uploaded by neepeople.

My Laura recently turned thirty-seven. It’s odd, really, watching yourself getting older with someone. You look behind and realize that the memories have piled up, one atop the other, and are beginning to fall over upon themselves into a heaping mountain of nostalgia. You can barely believe that all those memories belong to the two of you.

The other night I was watching her go about her routine, and I was struck at how happy I am, how much I’m enjoying getting older with her. What a paradox that all the mundanity of living, the stress of parenting, the headache of working to pay not much more than bills, et al, come to be such significant parts of the foundation on which our aging bodies stand today. Its comforting, really. Young lovers, they don’t know what this is. They simply lack the experience, as did we. But having been there and now being here, I much prefer here to there.

The Very Thought of You 

I was also reminded of something my doctor told me a while back, the doctor I’ve been seeing for 20 years. God knows how the topic arose, but I remember him saying, “Take it from thirty years of professional experience: women in their mid- to late-thirties are the sexiest women alive.” From my own experience, I’d have to say that when it comes to Laura I agree with him.

Much love, dearest.