Thirty-eight!

Today I’m singing “Happy Anniversary to us!” Ken and I were married 38 years ago, and yes, it is a happy anniversary.

We are celebrating thousands of joyful moments together, including spiritual milestones, and hard-fought-for contentment and perseverance. Yes, it’s a milestone, but we’re still learning. Still being stretched. Back in March, back when we were first sheltering at home, little did I realize we’d get to know each other in new and unexpected ways.

Ken was constantly asking me, “Why do you do it that way? Why not this way?”

Yep, we were seeing each other with new eyes. For more than 3 1/2 months, Ken and I kept ‘tripping over each other’ while sequestered in our single-story home (due to my disability, we’ll remain so throughout this month and probably August ). After being married so long, you’d think we’d figured out how to live in the same cramped space, but we needed to create some new habits to make it through the extra weeks at home.

You might think that when you’ve been married for as long as we have, creating new habits would be a challenge… there’s that saying about old dogs not learning new tricks. But Ken and I knew that if we were to thrive through sequestering, new habits were a must! New ways of relating… new rhythms for the day… new disciplines… keeping shorter lists… and more. I’m not saying that making those new habits was easy, but it has been worth it! And these are habits that will serve us well even when we are a little freer to come and go.

That’s still a ways off for us, as with my weakened lungs and quadriplegia I’m in the high risk group for COVID-19. So, tonight, the evening of July 3, we won’t be driving to our favorite little Italian restaurant to sit at “our” table and enjoy clam linguine followed by tiramisu. Instead, a friend is dropping off a to-go order and Ken and I will enjoy ‘take out’ by candlelight at our kitchen table.

I just know, though, that our time together will be all the sweeter, for the challenges of COVID-19.

Exactly what are these new habits I’m talking about? The other day Ken and I put together a little video where we discuss our new disciplines and I hope you’ll take a moment to watch it. But for now, here’s a little video in honor of our 38^th anniversary. Thanks for celebrating with us!

And one more thing, if you’d like prayer for cultivating new disciplines for yourself, drop us a note, won’t you? We’d love to join with you in praying that your next anniversary is a happy one.

–Joni Eareckson Tada