Marriage and Climbing

Micah and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary last Saturday.  It really is crazy how time flies.  A lot has changed in the last six year years: we both completed multiple degrees, we bought and sold a house in Colorado, we made many new friends, we have had different jobs, we moved to New Mexico, etc.  But today when I was putting things away around the house I was thinking about the things that have not changed.  We still have a lot of the same stuff we got as wedding gifts.  Our towels are starting to look more like rags, our throw pillows are getting worn, our dishes are all getting chipped and we have broken a few glasses, but for the most part we still have it all (thanks again for everyone's generosity when we got married!).  We also, embarrassingly, have the furniture we inherited from our parents after we got married: the 25 year old kitchen table from my parents, the living room tables from my parents, and the couches from Micah's parents.  It all still works and is comfortable so we still have it!

The couches and living room tables in our first apartment

My parents' old kitchen table in our first apartment

But besides the physical items we have had since the day we got married, we also still have our love for each other.  In fact, as I have heard my parents say so many times about their relationship, I believe we love each other more today than we did on August 13, 2005.  We have had our rough patches like everyone else, but everything we have gone through has drawn us closer to each other in the end.  We seem to understand each other even more than we did six years ago.  In fact, when we were climbing the other night I realized that I am starting to read Micah's mind.  No joke.  When you are lead belaying someone you need to anticipate when they are going to pull up a lot of rope to make the next clip.  Some people shout "clipping" every time they go for a clip, but Micah and I don't shout very loudly so that doesn't work for us.  Now I know just from watching Micah's body language when he is going to pull up the rope even if I can't actually see the next draw on the wall.

Micah pulling the rope to clip the next draw

We went climbing in the Sandias on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary.  As we were hiking out after our climb I realized how much climbing resembles a marriage.  When you are climbing you really have to trust your partner.  The lead climber must trust his belayer to catch him if he falls, and the person following must trust the lead climber to set up a solid anchor at the top of the pitch.  Trust is also key in a good marriage.  For both climbing and marriage, you have to be prepared for the worst, which could be bad weather or injuries in climbing and pretty much anything in marriage.  You will get bumps and bruises along the way with both, but each of those minor setbacks teaches you something for the future.  Climbing and marriage our both an adventure :).

At the top of the first trip on our anniversary climb

I trust that over the next sixty plus years of marriage our love for each other will continue to grow, we will become even better "mind readers" and we will continue to enjoy the sport of climbing.