A Wrinkle in Time

In my last year of highschool chemistry our teacher offered us a deal. For every 100 pages of a science book we read, he would give us 1% on our final grade. I chose a book about Einstein's theories of relativity that was a very tough read. I didn't understand much, and remember less, but what stuck with me is the concept that time is not linear, instead independent times coexist. A childhood book written by Madeleine L'Engle described time by comparing it to an ant travelling along a piece of cloth. One may think the shortest way for the ant to travel is a straight line, but if the cloth is folded so that two distant points are put together, the ant can travel that distance much faster. The boys have a book describing time, "A second is a hiccup..." and so on to a year. Time is measured with consistent units, but seems to change between people and contexts.

Nine years ago today I opened a huge door to the rest of my life when I married my best friend. The day was hot, but beautiful. I had the fairytale dress, church wedding and huge party. Before we got married I was worried. I was confident we were a good match, THE match, but wasn't every other bride to be? I wondered how I differed from the 50-60% of brides who were wrong. Nine years later, I have never had a moment of doubt and with each year we have grown stronger as partners, us against the world.

Einstein and L'Engle must have been on to something. Time isn't minutes and hours. The units are consistent but the total of those units are anything but. Nine years is a lifetime. Nine years is a hiccup. Nine years is a destiny and a life fulfilled, if the sun sets early. Nine years is a beginning, a dawn. Nine years is apparently NOT a diamond anniversary. Nine years is four children, a silly dog, a home, two careers... Nine years is success, failures, debt, frustrations, fights and victories and a whole lot of love.

We are so proud of our family, of what we've accomplished in our nine years. We're not rich (kinda on the anti-rich end of things), we're not leaders in our chosen fields, we haven't become famous, but we're a team, the soon-to-be six of us. And that's our greatest accomplishment.

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