One Soft Kiss

This Sunday marks the third anniversary of Astri and I getting married.  Looking back, the only days that compare are the births of our six children.  I revel in the idea of looking forward with Astri.  I've seemed to have changed many times over the years; each time I feel I became a better man.  Working through the personal errors, challenging my character when it needed it...I feel I am the best man now that I've ever been. It is a blessing is to have become that man by the time I found Astri.  Knowing that I've become an even better man over the four years we've known each other.  I hope the man I have become will find a continued path; that there is an avenue in Astri's life and in those of our children where this man will have served a purpose...beyond just just a repository for berlinakranser and Astri's carrot cake! <wink>

A couple of years before I met Astri I was feeling a bit creative.  Being a scientist that doesn't happen often, so when it does I need to take full advantage of it.  I am a thinker...and a talker.  At times it is not such an easy act for me to put my thoughts down in prose.

During that "creative" time I was thinking about where I was in my life and where I wanted to be.  Relationships are always a part of that...be it work, personal, or those with our children.  I just happen to start thinking about the freshness of a new relationship.  We have all heard the song "It's in his kiss."  I was thinking about that first kiss, and really how important it is, a memory we never want to let go of.  I asked myself what I would want in that first kiss.  What is below is what I came up with:

After expressing it on paper I found a lady to transcribe it in the calligraphy you see above.  I rolled it up into a tube and put it away.  Then I met Astri.  Our first kiss was exactly as I had written.  One evening I pulled it out and showed it to her (THE POEM!!!).  She had had the same feeling as I described in the poem also.  I had never displayed the poem before, but after our wedding we framed it with a photo from our $35 wedding.  The memory just keeps getting better and better.  I love my Astri!