Ten years ago today, my wife woke to a picture perfect swatch of Autumnal bliss – beheld the brilliant blue sky that stretched before her on that warm slice of late Indian Summer, and headed to the chapel as she was gonna’ get a’ married. No longer would the rest of womenfolk have to contend with my amorous advances once she said those magic words in response to mine and sealed the deal on our wedded bliss.

In baseball terms, she took one for the team.

I kid, of course. We both made out great in the deal and all of man and womankind is the worse for it. Two great catches found themselves in the same net that day and while we couldn’t know the road our shared life has traveled, we had a pretty good inkling that it was bound for glory.

That’s what shacking up and living in sin for 2 years prior gets you.

That’s right – before we were married, we were married – in the sense that we had moved in and played house for a couple of years before making the decision to seal the deal for real. And while everyone has their own keys to making a marriage work – I know we wouldn’t have done it any other way. In those two years we grew close and developed that great shorthand that the closest couples have. That ability to intuit what the other person is thinking. A power that can save you a lot of hassle when it comes to deciding whether to leave a toilet seat up or not.

So by the time we met before that altar, as our friends and family gathered en masse to wish us well on this shared life, we had already run down that checklist of questions that run through your head when you feel that exciting charge within that tips you off that you’ve found your one and only and really want to make sure that the alarms weren’t tripped in error. And as you work through the list, finding yourself checking all the important items with the affirmative on a rapid fire basis, your knees buckle. This is indeed the one. Time to put a ring on it.

So while today marks our 10th wedding anniversary, we’ve been at this a little while longer.

It’s a thought that Andi and I found ourselves chasing wistfully a few weeks back. She had just come in from her waitressing shift and the two of us settled down just to spill our tales from the day. The usual information dump which we try to add some color to by fixing in on anything funny that happened. As I was telling her another one of Aria’s latest bon mots (that girl is really making me regret not selling CBS on “S#$t My Daughter Says”), we ended up staring at a recent pic of she and Colin and somehow that lead us down the path – trying to recollect a life when it was just the two of us.

Seems like all this adventure as a 7-year old nuclear family has flown by in a blink of an eye – or rather, it doesn’t feel like we’d been away from our first apartment in Acton a full 10 years. After all, we were officially married sans children for three years and had an additional two year run together before we let Parson Brown do his thing.

But there it was. A decade had passed since we shared that cozy condo in MetroWest. And while we love where life has brought us, there is always that bittersweet yearning to the days when it was just the two of us; waking at a normal morning hour and making a beeline to the Breugger’s Bagels in Concord Center, before departing on whatever expedition floated our boat that particular day. Time is fleeting and like lightning, you can try your damnedest to catch it in a bottle but it’s always gonna’ find a way to slip your grasp.

It was a great start to a life that has only grown more complete and fulfilling… and bursting with love. Kids may add complexity and make you look back in awe at all you could have accomplished way back when (in comparison to all that you do now) had you just realized how to manage your time the way having kids and their busy schedules force you to engage but they also help strengthen the bond you have as a couple. At least, that’s our testimony.

If Andi and I had it good back then – our good fortune is immeasurable now that Colin and Aria are in it. We began our journey together enjoying life but not really realizing how much free time we actually had, and now that spare time is a luxury, we find ourselves more contented. Sure, we’re always running around like crazy but it’s that crazy-good kinda’ crazy that makes you take pause, in those last few vestiges of waking life, as your head nestles on the pillow and you gaze over at your sleeping spouse, and let the hushed breathing of a quieted house usher you off to slumber with a peaceful calm. We’ve got a billion things to do these days but we make it work. And that’s testament to the tag-team approach. We work well together.

Wonder twin powers activate.

But it’s in those last few seconds of conscious thought that I lay there, knowing just how good I’ve got it and banishing any foolish gripes or nagging complaints that happening to manifest that day straight to the wastelands.

I think back to my first professional job – right out of college – when I found myself with a shiny new Journalism degree fading away as a I toiled for a financial services company – a job that was a billion miles away from the lofty heights I wanted my writing to take me to – but nevertheless, did its part to pay those post-collegiate bills. And then I met an angel with a voice that busts that cliché – a sweet, beautiful, talented and most importantly – down home type, who took a chance on me. She was what I was looking for. The girl next door who just so happened to have sung far and wide – from Vatican City to Red Square and back again. And yet – as far away as she had traveled – carried aloft on that stunning vocal accompaniment – she had her roots in New England and the two of us just knew that we were meant to come together.

That was the Fall of 1996. We were living together in late Spring of 1998. We were married in October of 2000 and bought our first house a couple months later. Our yellow lab puppy, Abby, came bounding along moments after I was laid off in 2001 and her black companion, Chatham, joined the pack a year later in 2002. In May 2003 we welcomed our son Colin Edward and he said Hello to his sister Aria Leigh in the spring of 2005 – but not before making his first big move from one home to the next – traveling a slight journey to Central, MA in the Summer of 2004 – just moments before the Red Sox would make every single one of us glad we stayed tethered to this region.

We were married in the Autumn of 2000 because Andi and I agree that this is the absolute best time of the year. We have a shared love for this fleeting season that seemingly falls aside as soon as it arrives. It’s just one shared delight in a lifetime full of them and whenever the trees feel that first tickle of frost, and decide to gift us with one last blast of color and delight, we think back to our own picture perfect day.

Ten years brings a lot of change and I’m happy to report that as we waltz down the last few steps before hitting our forties, we do so, as bound arm-in-arm as we were on that magical October afternoon. We danced to Elton John’s “Your Song” but before we hit the dance floor as couple for the first time, there was another tune that like the day, was seemingly picked out specifically for us.

After making our way through the reception line, Andi and I poked our heads into the limo and nestled in for the brief ride from the church in Norwood to the Lakeview Pavilion in Foxborough. I reached for the radio and fired it up, just randomly hitting the Scan button for a radio station. We were instantly treated to U2’s “Beautiful Day”.

Yes it was, then. And every day since.

I love you, Andi!!!

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary.

And on behalf of women everywhere, thanks for taking one for the team. It means the world to me.