How do I love thee?

Let me give 22 reasons for every year of our marriage to explain to thee.

22. You have acquired the knack for reading labels on grocery items, and have become a connoisseur for choosing organic milk, and all organic products.

21. Who else would keep tabs when to change the oil filter in the car? Or change the damn tires? ‘Tis not I.

20. No one else would be able to share the many moments of laughing at our kids when they thought we were laughing with them.

 

 

19. In our 20s, you used to give up your sandwiches because I liked yours better, and you’d eat mine. Although today, you won’t trade or share dessert, but you’d still let me take a bite.

18. Good, bad, beautiful, ugly, and stretchmarks. You’ve witnessed it all.

17. You are the avocado, and fruit whisperer. The one who always selects the perfect produce.

16. One day, I will need a partner to babysit our grandchildren. You are the fun one to my Tiger Mom-ish ways.

 

15. You take out the trash, and pick up the dog poop.

14. You have perfected the art of cooking a steak.

13. The extrovert to my introvert. I leave all the socializing to you because you know the truth: there are people who gets on my nerves, and I am never one for small empty talks.

12. It still takes you a lot to get pissed, and when you do–it only lasts for a few seconds, and you’re laughing in the next minute. Whereas it would take a unicorn to calm me down.

 

 

11. You are the conservativeness to my liberalness.

10. You’ve built me garden boxes so that in the summer months, I am serene while gardening. Or maybe you built those so that I am too busy to nag at you.

9. When I am overtaken by emotions while writing my stories and the characters who consumes me, you are there to ground me and bring me back to the present.

8. Before this life, I know that you and I were friends in our past lives and that you were always the one I can rely on.

 

7. Because when Tommy was in Kindergarten, and he came home to tell us that he got into a fight because a kid called him a “flowerpot”–you laughed out loud, and you taught him never to take such insults seriously.

6. You’ve made a point of supporting the world of ballet because your daughter is in it.

5. You continuously remind the middle child of responsibility and attention to details.

4. Whatever journey I may embark on, you are always the one making sure that we have the supply gear prepared in order to survive.

 

3. You understand that love evolves. The love for the self, love for each other, and love for our children.

2. You always joke “it’s cheaper to keep her,” but I know the truth: I am the girl you chose.

1.  Because I chose you in this life. Though it may include the beautiful, the ugly, the devastating, the stunning, the sadness, and the happiness–what we have is simply this: Love.