In the space of two decades, we have buried a daughter, two fathers, a grandmother and others: friends that we loved, brethren that we cherished, church members we met only in their dying. We have sung for funerals and weddings, held the hands of the sick and weary, visited in kitchens.

We have sat and talked for hours, driven hundreds of thousands of miles. We have helped in the raisings of nine children and share now a dozen grandchildren with yet another due in November. We have remodeled four houses and continue the work of improving the fifth. We have stacked tons of stone, carried out old and put in new. We have turned ideas into cabinets, rooms, houses and yards.

We have traveled hour upon hour to watch ballgames, felt the heat of candles and adventured many storms. We have studied the etchings of lightning, felt the pounding of rain and thunder, and swam in the dark waters of summer nights in Kentucky.

We built a six-foot tall snow bunny after an April snowstorm and we saw flood waters miles wide beyond the channel of a small river. We parasailed over the bay of South Padre Island and snorkeled off Oahu, went scuba diving in the stone arches of Kona’s volcanic flow, marveled at graves in Mexico and grooved to Led Zeppelin tunes on the waterfront in Baltimore.

We have wept and laughed, felt ourselves torn in half by heartache and sometimes caused the same to others. We have made the bed in the quick rush of mornings and sipped warm glasses of red wine in the slow twilight. We have held our children close, laughed on the lawn and wondered if we would ever know peace again. We have held each other in fierce love, stubborn and unyielding against all that tried to tear us apart. We have found a closeness that I did not believe could exist, much less endure.

By grace even when not graceful, we have faced all things, believed in One Name and have loved each other above all others made of flesh. It is this that we treasure, this that we celebrate. It is this for which we give thanks, this that has been done by strength beyond our own.

H. Arnett
9/1/09