The Leap Year proposal

Day 94…#100daysofhappiness #100happydays

An ode to ‘Leap Day’ - to live and celebrate!

It’s fascinating to be able to cherish a leap day and have your 100 days in this leap year. What I write now, will be revisited 4 years later, so this makes this memory far more exciting. A tradition of the past, one that not many people know about, but a leap day was a day attributed to women once in 4 years (the last day of the shortest month in a leap year), to have the liberty to propose to a man they choose to woo. Marking my 10th anniversary this year, I find this tradition thrilling and hence choose to revive this tradition of proposing to the man who makes my heart dance with every little beat! Fairy tales are unreal and am, glad mine is not one. So on this day, February 29, 2016, cheers to ‘real marriages’ that are far more fun with adventure and learning, surprises that can make you teary eyed, moments that hold you for life, seeming imperfections that become romantic and acceptance to love in any shape or size.

As life gets more complex and decisions that may make us frown, I want to cherish and learn with every passing day, the meaning of companionship and friendship in marriage. I know there is no one else who can exemplify this better than you. We have our dreams, and we support each other. We take risks knowing that we are by each other’s side. We may get judged by everyone around us, but we know that our hearts are in the right place for the right reasons. As husband and wife, we stand united, for decades to come and in my silent prayer, for several lifetimes too. We may seem equally impossible to be around in one second, but difficult to be without too.

To our relationship, I bring madness, while you balance it with stability. I bring the vibrance, while you coat it with calmness. I bring the celebration, while you bring the meaning. I bring the words to express, while your hugs seem to impress. I dream of holidays and you are the wind beneath my wings. I bring smiles which you convert to endless happiness. After 10 years, we have grown together to love, respect and cherish. We didn’t make any vows on paper, but our prayers have inscribed them to eternity. We have redefined romance and quality time, and have found our minds opening the same pages of the book. We attempt surprises knowing the other has guessed our plan. We are a couple, but we know our space as individuals. We are parents, but we are friends first. We are not experts, and learning the ropes together with heaps of laughter. We have philosophies together and apart, which makes our journey exceptional and adventurous. We have had our share of challenges and testing times, but together it seemed like a breeze. I am sure we will have many more hardships in the future too, but in anticipation I look forward to making memories that will matter. I am glad we are not a perfect couple, but a couple that loves, accepts, cherishes, honors, jokes, annoys, makes mistakes and learns.

I have had my experiences, loved and laughed, hurt and cried, but with every moment I learnt more about what my perfect relationship would be. At a time when friends chose their own companions, I believed in the blessing of my family and the rationale of my mentor – my mother, who perfected my dreams of my ideal man! Grateful and with love, I smile in gratitude and pride, that the father to my kids, understands the worthiness of our entire family.

I can spin more words in perfecting this proposal, but I thought it was best captured in the words of Robert Bowning,
“Growing old with me!
The best is yet to be.
The last of life, for which the first was made.”
Till Eternity!