Goodnight

 

Love built a stately house; where Fortune came,

And spinning phansies, she was heard to say,

That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,

Whereas they were supported by the same:

But Wisdome quickly swept them all away.

Then Pleasure came, who, liking not the fashion,

Began to make Balcones, Terraces,

Till she had weakned all by alteration:

But rev’rend laws, and many a proclamation

Reformed all at length with menaces.

Then enter’d Sinne, and with that Sycomore,

Whose leaves first sheltred man from drought & dew,

Working and winding slily evermore,

The inward walls and sommers cleft and tore:

But Grace shor’d these, and cut that as it grew.

Then Sinne combin’d with Death in a firm band

To raze the building to the very floore:

Which they effected, none could them withstand.

But Love and Grace took Glorie by the hand,

And built a braver Palace then before.

George Herbert - “The World”

Coming clean

My dad’s parents - 1945

My mom’s parents - 1952

My parents - 1990

Us - 2018

Two years ago today, I wrote this post. Less than 3 weeks later, this guy a friend of mine had been telling me about for a year sent me a friend request on Facebook. Over the next two years, one thing led to another, and in addition to picking up a graduate degree and new job, I thought, “why not add a husband to the mix as well?”

Back when I was in college, I decided that as long as I was unmarried, I’d stick around in school collecting degrees. In keeping with this sentiment, he waited until the day after I handed in my last paper to propose, choosing the gardens surrounding a transplanted medieval French chapel situated in the middle of my university as the scene of the crime. There were some serious Gaudy Night vibes. We got married on the day he - a year earlier - realized he wanted to marry me (September 28th). The English major in me is so proud of all this allusiveness.

I still stand by the spirit of everything I wrote in my post two years ago, although the Reformed Baptist landscape is radically different now. As a result, I suspect it is even more difficult to find a like-minded spouse. However, as someone who became an exception to her own forecast, I am thankful I didn’t compromise. You know you picked the right one when you come back from your honeymoon, which included visits to three schools, three bookstores, and three libraries, with a trunk-load of books. LIVING THE DREAM.