Please welcome Melina formally of Owl & Peacock and now Golden Kin...
Humans have the uncanny skill and desire to classify and quantify - what fortune! Numbers mean so very much to us: they structure our days, months and years; they give us ages, physical features and wealth. More numbers do not always imply greater nor better; but, sometimes they do. Some numbers make news headlines. Others cause scandals. And some discover new worlds while archiving the old. A whirlwind of contradictions, these numbers - so why not let them flutter to the wind and watch them play?
I reflect back on many of the numbers in my life. I have trod this earth twenty-seven years alongside two parents, one brother, one sister and four dogs in this wonderful country of fifty states. Ancestral roots stem from four grandparents, exponentially doubling backwards for millennia and traveling to at least three different heritages. My maternal grandfather was twenty one years older than his wife, my maternal grandmother; she has spent twenty one years without him now, is eighty-seven years old and still works six days a week. She is my number one love - at least of familial caliber.
But my first romance was a mere five second kiss in a classmate's treehouse at age fourteen. Ever since, I have kissed more boys than I care to share - definitely more than ten fingers' worth. It strikes me, presently, as a silly waste of many hours and days. Or not; because we all know that everything we have done up until this present moment led us to precisely this present moment. And presently, there is only one man who exists so fully in my world.
I met my husband almost one year ago, the eighth month of the celestial year. He lived two states away; we spent a mere twenty minutes chatting and it took only two seconds to realize that he was the one. We met again one month later with three hours of conversation, then sent nearly six dozen letters for nearly six weeks. A trip together to the Second City; and without a numbered carat on my fourth finger, we eloped three minutes before the courthouse closed. Only four others knew: our siblings and the waitress serving our celebratory lunch. Three weeks later we shared the news with the dozens of family and friends, and eight months later, we are finally having a celebration with one hundred guests.
Dizzying, no? It took a while to gather those stats; because, truth be told, I do not really care for any of those numbers. Not anymore. They're simply fun to giggle at, something I bring up when I want to get a peek at my husband's two dimples.
Our first kiss occurred three weeks before we married. Most are incredulous of our haste; but time seems to be the last thing on our minds nowadays. Time holds all those numbers we defied and laughed at. We're not very fond of rules, especially the numerous rules we have not created ourselves. And that's just it: we create everything, our universe, together. Numbers are a new, a very brand new thing that we are building. What matters those numbers involved in the foundation so long as it bears a great, wondrous structure? We know that we will laugh together for many, innumerable years to come - but we take it moment by moment and revel in the marvel of existence. Then, and only then, do our numbers shine.
So go play with your numbers. Play and make believe and gain points and tally; then forget it all and start a new game afresh. Innumerable doors will open and close throughout our lives - one of which may be a love that cares not what the score is. By saying Yes to whim and spontaneity: this is how I found the perfect teammate.
Besides, who doesn't like a game?
{Images via Vintage Photobooth}
