2005-05-09 - 6:19 a.m.
And then this weekend came along and made all the difference.
We woke up Sunday morning, scrambled to get some random food bits and the kids together and headed out the door. We drove about half of an hour, into Loudoun County, Virginia to the nearest trailhead along the Appalachian Trail.
We spent the rest of the morning walking a rocky, winding path through the woods along about a mile stretch of the Appalachian - me with the baby attached to my back and my wife keeping an eye on the boy. Hiking with a four year old is great fun; he stopped to look at everything and marveled at all that he saw. The going was a little slow, but we didn't really have a goal in mind...that is...except for spending the day together.
We stopped for a picnic lunch at a bare spot along the trail, which was also near a small brook. As we sat munching happily I looked over at my wife and she at me and I saw her face flush a bit - I could tell she was holding back a tear. She said, "This is what it's all about." I stroked her hair and kissed her forehead and knew exactly what she meant.
She was right. That very moment was as pure and perfect as any I have ever experienced and though I didn't let on, I too was overtaken by it. The most wonderful thing about being married to my wife is that we seem to see things through the same set of eyes and think about things with the same brain - and love with the same heart. There is a unity of spirit and purpose that I have never known in this world, save for my time with her.
She leaves me feeling so vulnerable - something I'll never share with her, because it is not my place in our relationship to be vulnerable. But there is no fear with my vulnerability, because with it comes trust...I think it's the trust that is at the heart of my vulnerable feeling, for I have never trusted anyone the way I trust her. I've never had to.
On Mother's Day this year I communicated with my wife a silent understanding and shared with her a pure moment in our lineage of moments from here to there. Happy Mother's Day my wife...I love you.
