"How far to heaven? Just open your eyes and look. You are in heaven" -Shankar
In May of 2008 Elijah and I went to Dublin. Amelia was nothing more than a possibility at the time so we left Asher home with his Granny and spent a week alone. Initially we had wanted to find another couple to travel with us. We had gone to Amsterdam and Brussels the year before with Elijah's brother and sister-in-law and really enjoyed sharing the experience with friends. This time, however, our schedule was pretty tight and we were unable to find anyone who could squeeze in a short notice trip. I was excited to have an entire week alone with my husband, but also nervous that we'd get bored or annoyed with each other. (Honestly, I was mostly nervous about him getting bored and annoyed with me as I'm not a very spontaneous and laid back person.)
We discussed a few sights we didn't want to miss, such as the Guinness Storehouse, Killmainham Gaol and an additional day trip to Kilkenny, but other than that, we really wanted to relax and take our time exploring Dublin. The weather was perfect. We had a full week without rain (other than the slight drizzle we landed in) and were able to really soak in the beauty of the public greens.
It was a perfect vacation in every way. We laughed at getting lost together. We planned our next day's adventure over long, quiet, child free romantic dinners. We finished bottles of wine, tasted gallons of beer, bought bizarre Irish junk food and gorged ourselves while watching random TV shows in bed.
This trip reminded us that, although we have both grown and changed throughout our nine years together, we are still so very much in love. There is not only familiarity and comfort in our relationship, there is also excitement and laughter. We can miss the train to Kilkenny and take a surprisingly unplanned excursion to a coastal city without being anything but happy to be doing it with each other. We can eat every meal together for a week and still have something to talk about. We still want to hold hands while walking down the street and are just as content laying in bed watching TV together as we were when we did it in our old dorm rooms.
Elijah is the love of my life; my perfect counterpoint. That week we spent together still serves as a reminder that my heaven: kisses me every morning before work, mows the lawn and takes out the trash, chases his children around the house, then lays down next to me at night.
In short, my heaven is wherever he is.
This post is written in response to a prompt from:
(I'm pretty sure it was last week's prompt but it's my first week following the prompts and I got all mixed-up with the timing. Rookie mistake.)
