Karen, she’s the silver sun
Dear Karen,
Happy 14th anniversary. Last year I wrote this for you. It’s been another crazy year. Some people only remember the good in their lives. Some people only dwell on the bad. But each day with you reminds me that it’s all part of the journey we’re on together. Where we started. Where we’ve been. I still smile when I think about where we’re going.
Each day I’m more grateful that you’re raising Izzy, Max, and Kate. I’m grateful that you still believe in and put up with the dreamer that you married.
This year I wrote this little thing for you. I love you.
*****
Karen she’s the silver sun
14 years of challenges and victories and chaos and sweet peaceful silver suns
always calling me back
We sat on the roof looking over Bohicket Creek one night
listening to the wind in the mast riggings
smelling the Carolina evening breezes across the island
pine needles, salt, and palmettos, spanish moss clinging
That first year still feels like yesterday
but, there’s been so much more
Today I’m thinking about it all
I still remember dark island nights
the heat blowing inland as the waves crashed on the seawall.
Karen watching for hours for dolphin
And we breathed deep, taking it all in, having no idea
what was ahead for us – 14 years, 3 kids, a life far from the ocean, a whole big wonderful mess.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe it was us back then.
But our first dance is still happening in my heart and mind,
back when we knew where we were going
and it’s in the eyes of our children now.
The promises of our first date and the promises of the year on the island.
Our front porch swing there someday.
And grandkids. And crazy stories we’ll tell about our life together.
Two adventurers like rudderless ships through life.
The breezes still blow across the island.
I’m still there. As long as
Karen, she’s always the silver sun.
*****
I love you,
– Chad
Our first dance was….
Doesn’t seem like long ago when y’all came to visit my apartment at Post Vinings on Atlanta Road in the summer of 1998 (I think), and then a few months later, when I sneaked off an Air Force base without permission to go to y’all’s wedding!
Very sweet!