Our 20th Wedding Anniversary

My husband, John, always tells me he started to fall in love with me the evening he first saw a large(5 ft x 5 ft), abstract painting I had hanging in my home. It was over 21 years ago that he saw that painting (today it hangs in the front hall of our condo). We were married about 59 weeks after that evening and, today - December 7, 2011 - is our 20th wedding anniversary. Yay us!!

Since we first met, our lives have revolved a lot around aesthetics - we have travelled a fair bit and acquired art everywhere we have gone. And the beauty of the pieces we've chosen together is outweighed by their sentimental value to us - when we gaze at these works we are transported to where we were at that time in our lives and relationship. These works (mainly paintings, but also some glass work, pottery, metal work and wood carvings) form the emotional map of our life together.

About 16 years ago, while visiting Vancouver, we bought a lovely, bright landscape done by an artist named Nancy O'Toole. Today, while strolling the main street of Sidney, BC we looked in the windows of the Peninsula Gallery, and simultaneously exclaimed over the same painting..."Stranded in Tofino" by Michael O'Toole.



Yes, Michael is Nancy's son! We were thrilled, and bought the painting on the spot to commemorate our 20th wedding anniversary.

Twenty years is something to celebrate. Neither of us has ever lived with/spent 20 years with anyone, not even our families of origin! It's a marvellous thing to walk hand-in-hand along a street, to look in a shop window and exclaim at the same moment with the same passion about the same work of art. John just grinned at me from ear-to-ear and said "Wanna buy it?" "Duh!!" was my eloquent response.

Happy #20, my love!

Todo bien. (It's all good.)