Yesterday was my 24th wedding anniversary. My wife and I exchanged gifts, but the most precious gift I received was the following letter:

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To my husband,


Today, we celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. We’ve been together longer than we lived with our parents!

Through these 24 years, we have laughed and cried; we’ve won and lost;

We have had many new experiences; we’ve seen this country and Canada.

We grew from friends and lovers to partners. We are known as a team, whether in costuming, SCA events, the arts, or mental health.

We’ve known success in a variety of areas: getting a championship on a dog; winning regional art award; getting your TWIT, a ribbon at a horse show; helping friends; having your graphics go national. Showing your fibers internationally

We have shown that we are tough, not weak. We have survived separations, homelessness, unemployment, and childhood abuse. We have emerged from those experiences wiser and stronger.

Sometimes each of us is hard to live with; we get on each other’s nerves. Yet, the underlying love and friendship remains.

This anniversary day finds us both at personal plateaus. It’s a frustrating time for both. The thing about plateaus is that they occur before something good happens. Plateaus are before one begins to go up. While frustrating, plateaus are a sign of something good ahead.

I look forward to new adventures for us and more anniversaries.

My love,

Joanne


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A little history; Joanne and I met while working in a Psych hospital. I was sitting in the window of the dorm I work on and saw her walking up the hill to interview for the dorm next door. I said to myself, “Self this is someone you have to meet.” So after the interview I went next door and talk the supervisor into hiring her.

It took me about a year to get up the nerve to ask her out and it was a good thing I was sitting down because she said “yes just as soon as my divorce is final.” All I heard was “YOU ARE MARRIED!!!!!”

We have work together for much of our time together. And we have shared clients that touched one or both of us very deeply.

We have costumed together for many major productions.

SCA = The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

TWIT = temporary WOAW in training; an award

WOAW = Woebegone victim of an ailing wit; the next step

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I would like to think that *ibrahimabutouq and I are become friend despite the language difficulties. He recently posted the calligraphy he did of a poem that I think is fitting here.



An Arabic poem which says , , , I have stable character before I taste the passionate love , , , when I trapped by a girl , , , I have lost my stability , , , and admired how many people have been getting death without love , , , , or the love only matches the human beings , , , other creatures don t have this taste


And then there is this

an Arabic poem which says , , where are the eyes that enchanted me , took me as a prisoner, in which I saw the light of my wishes shine and glimmer . , , , , this is a poem about some one who fell in love with certain eyes, and when the beloved left , the lover could only dream about the memories of those eyes, , ,
poet , Ahmad Rami, ,
singer , Um-Kulthum
musician, Moh d Qasabji