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Friday, June 25, 2010

Rolling on the River

Today is June 25th, 2010.


It's been an eventful five years for us.

A new home.
2 beautiful children.
Some major career decisions.
We lost some people who were very important to us.
We moved on together.
Lots of laughter.
Lots of tears.
Some yelling. (Ok, Ok, lots of it - We both have hot tempers, what can I say?)

Today, my parents called me up to wish us a "Happy Anniversary!" My mother took the phone, after the handoff from my Papa, to tell me the following Hindi saying:

"ACHAL RAHE AHIBAAT TUMHARA JUB TUK GUJNG JAMUN JUL DHAARA"

I asked her what it meant and she said:

"May your married life be forever, just as the flow of the water in the Ganges and Jamuna rivers, which never, ever stops."

My mom doesn't usually have sayings like this for me. She is usually asking me if I want more roti or bhaat and when am i going to stop with all this silly diet, piet thing (Indians - well, at least the ones in my family - have a way of emphasizing things by making meaningless rhymes out of them) But this saying? I thought it was really beautiful - honestly one of the best anniversary gifts we could have received.

I appreciated the blessing my mother gave me this morning, not only because of the beauty and the significance of the words - in India, the Ganges and the Jamuna rivers are considered sacred, holy waters - but because it made me realize that there are forces in a marriage, which make the ebb and flow of this relationship as mercurial as any river . . .

The stillness, the calm. Serenity on a sunny, spring day.
The birth of our children.

The uncontrollable flash floods, prompted by tumultuous storms.
The nights FOLLOWING the births of our children and the sleepless nights, the hormonal mood swings and my ability t burst into tears on command.

The class 5 rapids that swept us along a path which we had no control over and which made us feel helpless under the pull of the river.
Seeing our 7 day old son receive a spinal tap.

The beauty of leaping off a waterfall into the cool, crisp river below.
Life. And every day we get to live it - the pain, the beauty, the joy, the awful stubbornness which could be our downfall.

All of it.

So I guess for now, we will just keeping going with the flow . . .

Happy Anniversary, Husband.


XOXO,
Kiran

The river is within us, the sea is all about us.

-T.S. Eliot Four Quartets,'The Dry Salvages', pt.1.

16 comments:

MommyLovesStilettos said...

Happy anniversary! :)

Carrie said...

Happy anniversary! :)

Melinda said...

Beautiful post! Love is worth fighting for -- the not so beautiful moments make us appreciate the good ones even more.

Happy Anniversary -- may you have many, many more!

Oh, and our remodeling woes are nearly over. By Wednesday of next week, sanity should reign again (at least temporarily! ;0) in my household!

Tracie said...

Happy Anniversary! This was a beautiful post.

Lemon Gloria said...

Happy anniversary! May it be forever, like your mom says.

Shell said...

Happy anniversary! Such a beautiful blessing!

SaraPlaysHouse.com said...

I love this. You describe marriage PERFECTLY.
Which obviously means you know what you're doing and will have many, many years to ride this river.

SurferWife said...

Happy Pappy Anniversary Blangiversary.

Did I do your mother proud?

Sara said...

That's really nice.

And five years with any one single human being is a lot.

So the fact that you not only love him but still like him is fantastic.

I'm in awe.

Well done and congratulations!

Annie @ astonesthrowfrominsanity said...

Happy Anniversary! Beautifully said. Beautifully said! Your mama sounds like a wise woman. :)

Anna Whiston-Donaldson said...

very, very true!

happy anniversary!

Kristen said...

Beautiful, Kiran. And Beautiful Kiran and husband in your photo - wow! Reading your post about your marriage and the blessing from your mom brought tears to my eyes. May you enjoy the ebbs and flows (and rocky rapids) of marriage for the rest of your long lives. Happy Anniversary!!
Love,
Kristen

Macey said...

Sorry I'm late!! I hope you had a wonderful anniversary! :)

foxy said...

Awwwww... I hope you guys had a great anniversary. I just love LOVE.

nmaha said...

That was a lovely blessing.......happy anniversary.....my husband and I finished 5 years on the 27th of June :-)

Life Without Pink said...

Happy Anniversary! A marriage is such a blessing!

 

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