Due to the state of the economy, the Craig household is on a hiring freeze. We are not currently accepting any new bids for large projects right now. So our anniversary gifts this year were quaint. And that was actually quite fine with us. The backpacking trek across Europe? Maybe next year. Scuba diving in the Caymans? Perhaps on my 40th birthday. A sleek, black Audi A8? How embarrassingly cliché for you.
For me, Katie hunted through her favorite little used bookstore and discovered this inimitable gem: 365 Love Poems. My favorite? Marriage by Samuel Rogers.
Then before all they stand – the holy vow
And ring of gold, no fond illusions now,
Bind he as his. Across the threshold led,
And every tear kissed off as soon as shed,
His house she enters – there be a light,
Shining within, when all without is night;
A guardian angel o’er his life presiding,
Doubling his pleasures and his cares dividing,
Winning him back when mingling in the throng,
Back from a world we love, alas! too long,
To fireside happiness, to hours of ease,
Blest with that charm, the certainty to please.
How oft her eyes read his; her gentle mind
To all his wishes, all his thoughts inclined;
Still subject – ever on the watch to borrow
Mirth of his mirth and sorrow of his sorrow!
The soul of music slumbers in the shell,
Till waked and kindled by the master’s spell,
And feeling hearts – touch them but rightly – pour
A thousand melodies unheard before!
And for her, I hunted through some garage-banished boxes of photographs labeled Things to Never Put on Display, threw them in with some digital ones we had on file and presented her with these buried treasures. Which I now share with you, if you'll indulge me.
