Paper Anniversary 2022 03 08: Celebrating Tradition Untraditionally

Video tribute to our Paper Anniversary found here:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdDtrhBs/

Paper symbolizes a blank slate and new beginnings, as well as, seemingly contradictory, both strength and fragility.

After only 1 year of marriage, the relationship is still “new,” and we, as the happy couple, are just “beginning” on our partnered journey in life.

But paper can be easily torn, if handled indelicately. Or it can provide shelter, depending on how it’s structured.

Paper is a place for imagination and creativity. It has almost infinite possibilities. It represents ultimate freedom.

And yet marriage is anything but freedom, right? It’s “the ole ball and chain.” It’s “bondage.” It’s a contract. It’s obligation and responsibility. It is commitment.

But it’s not a prison. It’s a partnership. It is chosen. And it’s a choice that has to be made daily.

We had one wedding ceremony, but that ceremony was just a public announcement that *every* day for the rest of our lives we will wake up and say “I will” to each other. Every day for the past year has been our wedding day, and every day after that that we are both alive will also be our wedding day. It is a day without end, Amen.

After one year of marriage, we are still establishing our foundation. In fact, we’re still working on our blueprints. We’re still deciding who we want to be for ourselves and each other and where we want to go on our journey and with whom we want to travel.

We need that paper. We have a lot of planning and figuring to do.

And it’s exciting, and it’s terrifying. With all the possibilities, what if we “mess up” our paper? What if we don’t like what we create? I’m channeling Bob Ross for this one—it’ll just be “happy accidents.” The mistaken ink mark becomes a bird with another mark making it into a V. The tree is a little bigger than expected. We add a “happy little cloud” to cover up the raindrop. Or we turn the paper over… Or we fold the paper… It’s all about perspective.

We are hopeful and we are happy, and we also know 1 year is so fragile. We know the road ahead is not easy because we live in a world where half of the people who try this decide to stop trying at some point. Our celebration of our 1 year accomplishment isn’t any more naive than a substance abuser celebrating their 1-year chip. We have an acute awareness that our success is tentative and could be easily lost in a single moment of bad choices.

And we carry that knowledge with us into each day, reminding ourselves we have to protect our home, our new lease on life with every choice we make.

And so we employ traditions to anchor us, to remind us of the good we have, to participate in community and have a sense of belonging, to honor the past, and to have an easy vehicle to experience the feelings of celebration. But we do it a little “untraditionally” because we also have an obligation to deliver the sacred traditions to the future. So we take the old, drop dead the weight, repackage it a little, and add something to it to provide a connection point for the relay to the next generation.

Here is our “Paper Year:” A little messy, a little unorganized and chaotic, half planned/half spontaneous, creativity on a budget, usually fun, and *always* loving.

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Happy Anniversary, Babe. You are my hero. You even have the white horse(power) to prove it ;-)