Anniversary Symbols

As I mentioned in my previous post I recently celebrated my 8^th Wedding Anniversary.

My husband and I both think it is important to mark these special days. I know a lot of people don’t bother to mark every anniversary and holidays such a Valentine’s day sometimes get bad press with the cynics protesting that if couples are truly in love then this should be reflected in their daily lives rather than requiring a special holiday to remind them to tell each other how much they mean to each other.

Whilst I agree in principal with this sentiment and try to show my husband how much I appreciate him every day; let’s face it, with the pressures of modern life it is difficult to maintain the initial flush of romance on an ongoing long term basis. After 13 years of being with the same person a lot of the mystery is gone, you have fewer “firsts” to look forward to and you will have had to deal with times of difficulty and hardship together as this is a part of life.

So every year my husband and I try to mark the occasion and often consult the internet to review the Anniversary Symbols to provide us with inspiration when choosing a suitable gift for one another.

Apparently anniversary celebrations began in medieval times. When a couple had been married for 25 years the husband would place a wreath of silver on his wife’s head and at 50 years, a wreath of gold. This practice has progressed over the years with different symbols attached to each year of married life.

There are four lists that I have discovered: Traditional, Modern, Flowers and Gemstones. We mix and match depending on how easy it is to match the material to a suitable gift to suit our personal tastes.

8 years of married life is assigned the following symbols:

Traditional: Bronze/Pottery
Modern: Lace/Linen
Flower: Clemitis
Gemstone: Tourmaline/Tanzanite

If you turn the figure 8 on its side it is the symbol of infinity and the symbolism of that is self explanatory. The other possible choices have the following attached meanings:

Bronze, an amalgam of tin and copper, represents a strong marriage formed by the joining of two individuals as a couple. It emphasises love and a high priority on spending time together.

Pottery is formed from clay, and so represents the moulding of the marriage relationship into something beautiful.

Clematis, a beautiful star-shaped flower that can be white, pink, red or purple symbolizes ingenuity or resourcefulness

Tourmaline, a gemstone believed by the Romans to be susceptible to solar influences. It is said to have the power to “disperse fears and melancholic passions.” It was also worn to gain inspiration, to attract favours, and to secure friends.

Having reviewed this list (and my bank balance) we have decided that as money is tight at this time of year (as my part time position stops during the school holidays) we are going to think outside the box. As we have already made plans to travel to Mexico for a well earned break in the sun, we will go with the Bronze option but rather than exchange ornamental statues we will rely on the Mexican sun to provide us with bronze skin and hopefully some more happy memories.

Happy Anniversary

On Tuesday this week, my husband and I celebrated our 8^th Wedding Anniversary. He is the most important person in my life and I cannot imagine what my life would look like without him. We have been together since we were 20 and have had some wonderful times. When I was filling out the anniversary card I picked for him I decided to do some research and find some inspirational quotes about married life to make him smile. It was an extremely disappointing experience.

Online I was able to find pages and pages of quotes about marriage but nothing positive and uplifting. The sites should come with some sort of warning. Any couples considering marriage who accidentally stumbled across them, should be aware that reading this material could put them off the idea of marriage entirely.

It is socially acceptable to be happy and in love when you are engaged and have your whole life ahead of you but if a married person so much as says Happy Anniversary to their partner on their Facebook status, the comments that follow are often  snide and unpleasant “pass me a bucket”, “you’d get less time for murder”. Why should married people be ashamed of simply saying that they are still happy and in love? It seems sad. I dug out this passage that was read at my own wedding.

“Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.”
1 Cor. 13:4-8

I love this passage and the positive message of hope and love. So at the risk of deeply offending the cynics out there:

Happy Anniversary sweetheart, I love you.

Pete Jee

As I mentioned in my previous post I have a secret ambition to write a stand up routine. Although this idea has been in my head for some time, it was re-enforced by a good friend of mine who took a stand up course a few years back. His stand up persona is Pete Jee.

He has been a dear friend for over 8 years now and has been very supportive of me in all aspects of my life. We have been through a lot together and although we started out with a purely professional relationship he quickly became a true friend.  He is a bit of a Jack of All Trades and always has some new business opportunity he is trying out. He has been unlucky in love and has embarked on a never ending quest to find “the one”.

Pete encouraged me for years to retrain to become a qualified teacher and when I eventually did he made sure that he attended my school events to show his ongoing support. I helped him work on the delivery of his stand up material in a pub one sunny Sunday afternoon over a bowl of cheesy chips and although he wont be be receiving a call to appear on Live At The Apollo anytime soon  – he always makes me laugh.

Inspired!

I am new to blogging.

In recent years, although I have been aware ofthe existance of internet blogs, my understanding has been largely informed by my love of “Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog” starring Neil Patrick Harris.

But that was until recently.

My husband has always harboured a wish to be a writer.  He is an avid reader and loves the fantasy genre. When he talks about the ideas he has for his own work he is extremely passionate and despite having a dozen scenarios and characters in his minds eye, each screaming to be commited to paper, he has struggled to follow through with any of them. He even attempted attempted working with a partner at one stage.

Early this year he decided to do something about it. Instread of being confronted with the dreaded blank page he decided to write a blog. Apparently this is a technique used by many aspiring writers to help them get into the habbit of writing something however trivial every day. This is a great way of collecting ideas that could be furthur developed at a later date. I love my husbands witty take on life and have been extremely impressed with his insightful, creative and humourous observations.

This made me think of a secret ambition I have had for some time. I would love to write a stand up routine. I don’t think I have ever confessed this to anyone but it is something I would really love to do. I have no delusions that I will be the next big thing on Live at the Apollo or anything like that but it would be fun to try something that challenges me and gives me the opportunity to be creative.

I don’t know if I have my husbands commitment to this task (he has set himself a goal of a post a day!), but he has inspired me to give it a go and simply try to write about my day to day life on a regular basis whether its a review of a book or play, an observation, witty anecdote or just a moan about something that has irritated me.

If nothing else maybe this will give me an opportunity to get stuff out of my system if I’ve had a hard day at the office.