time

Dear Lord,

thank you for time!

Thank you that with each day in the warmth of your love I can mean the words "dear" and "Lord" more and more fully,
truthfully,
sincerely.

Dear Lord,
the one who has shepherded me so faithfully,
carefully,
thoughtfully.

You've dragged me through so many disasters!
You've preserved my life,
against fell fortunes,
sad hours,
and countless accidents that never happened.

You've been a friend in dark days,
quiet moments,
and cacophonous melees,
speaking words of wisdom,
words of life.

I giggle at the virginal wonder
of a bride on her wedding day,
believing so entirely that she couldn't possibly love her groom more.

I giggle at the laughter of years,
the throaty 'ha ha' of Sarah,
shored up by the evidence of decades,
believing such a thing could never happen.

Time in love is your great joke on me,
on all of us.
You knew all along I would look back
in wonder
at that other me
and smirk,
now knowing the next part of the story,
the ironic twist in the tale,
coming for her,
ready to invert expectations,
startle her predictions,
delight her with new depths of knowledge,
and a hefty chuckle at her previous ingenue self.

To my shame and to my delight,
I did not expect this development in the plot;
that a 27th anniversary would be more deeply felt
than a first night in the honeymoon suite.

I will still be surprised,
like Sarah,
at 90,
because even now I've only scratched the surface
of all that you have for me,
for us,
for the cosmos.

I'll wait breathlessly to read the next page of your manuscript,
savouring with pleasure the lines of such mastery,
revelling in the delight of finding a playwright
whose every step surprises,
whose skill surpasses,
whose knowledge of human nature saturates every page,
and whose favourite plot is comedy.

Dear Lord,
my Lord,
thank you for time.