To celebrate our fortieth anniversary, our family gathered in the Poconos for a week. The event was postponed from last year for obvious reasons, and the crescendo only added to the anticipation. 

 

There are a slew of details inherent in that feat, between our nine kids and their besties taking off work, traveling from four states, timing covid test results, and schlepping fourteen bags of edibles so that we did not have to shop every day. We did anyway. 

 

Two friends were generous enough to lend us kayaks which were launched morning and evening, and another loaned a small keyboard for musical enterprise. I had my guitar and loved singing with John and our twins for an uninterrupted medley of our songs. 

 

But there were two surprises in store. Our daughter designed t-shirts to commemorate the family in the form of a crossword puzzle. Each name was an answer, which seems fitting. Every person is themselves a solution to the quandary of finding connection. 

 

The other was a compilation of videos from people who subscribe to these messages, which I christened Marriage Moats eleven years back. I don't understand how our kids accessed those email addresses without my knowledge, and then knit them into a medley of 87 tender wishes.

 

I wept. It has indeed been a wonderful life.