From a guest-blogging husband

A NOTE ABOUT THIS BLOG'S AUTHOR
-and-
A COMMENT REGARDING A FORGOTTEN ASPECT OF THE "WEAKER" SEX

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In this new millennium, I have watched Your Author.

Watched her birth and raise three children;
leave friends in town and watch friends leave;
lose her father and grandfather.

Walk with her betrothed through
9 houses and apartments, 3 states,
schools and jobs,
food stamps and a layoff,
arguments and pain,
decisions and mistakes.

I have seen her battered.
I have seen her weary.
I have seen her confused.
I have seen her angry.

But I have never seen her broken, never hateful, never hopeless.

She continues to laugh.
She continues to love her family and friends deeply.
She continues to help and encourage.
She continues with an inner peace.
She continues.

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Boys - when asked to describe the ideal women - dutifully deliver the classic triad: beauty; intelligence; sense of humor.
And while I value these things in your Author daily, her strength tops this man's list.

The quiet, abiding strength of a woman is a slower seductress than her beauty or charm.
But those men who have had the opportunity to fall to its subtle enchantment know that its hold is ironclad.

We find friendship in a 20-minute conversation.
We learn to be lovers in a few passionate hours.
But we become partners in the trenches over thousands of days.

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Happy 10-Year Anniversary!