Some things I know:
- How you look is not nearly as important to me as who you are
- Who you think I am and who you want me to be is more important to me than who I think I am
- How long we've been together is not as important to me as how much time we have left
- If I had the opportunity to live my entire life over again, I wouldn't change anything that might compromise later meeting you
- "Us" is far more important than "me"
Some things I want:
- I want to be able to demonstrate to you all of the things that I know so that you will know them too
- I want to measure our lives by our dreams for the future rather than our accomplishments of the past
- I want never ever to hurt you
- If a part of me distresses you, then I want to have the courage to despise that part until I can remove it, even though I know that you love me enough that it isn't necessary
- When we disagree, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume I'm the one who is wrong because I know I handle being right in the face of uncertainty more gracefully than being wrong in the face of unwelcome evidence
- I want to be one of those old couples who have grown so close over time that they don't even need to talk anymore but just sit and be together
- I know this is selfish, but I want to die first; besides, no matter when I go, you're going to be waiting in Heaven for me to get out of Purgatory anyway
- I want to live long enough to see one of our children or grandchildren take holy orders
- I want to measure my success in this relationship not by what I give you, where I take you, or what I say, but by how I demonstrate to you that I spend more time thinking about you and us than I do thinking about myself
- I want to be reasonably successful at pulling off at least some of these "wants"
- I want those of my children who are destined to have spouses to find spouses that are at least as devoted to them as I am to you
And since I ran you off from reading over my shoulder while I was writing this, I hope it was worth the wait.
