10 years

10 years ago last Wednesday, Brandon and I started our relationship. February 9, 2011 came and went as a fun "dating anniversary", a perhaps more subdued one due to our lack of finances, time constraints, and logistics of getting a babysitter. Don't get me wrong, we did have fun. Ever since we moved here we've been hearing about how Phoenix is hiding the country's best pizza...so we decided to wait in line (a two-hour wait minimum) and find out. Pizzeria Bianco was truly a treat. We were pleasantly surprised to find that they own a wonderfully cozy wine bar next door in a quaint, old Craftsman-style home. Two hours goes fast when you are snuggled in the corner of this charming house with a glass of delicious wine and your honey by your side. When we finally did make it into the pizzeria we were met with a tiny, brick-covered room lit by a large fire-roasting oven. The pizza was fabulous. And what made it so great was the simplicity of it all. A thin, very fresh crust with a thin layer of fresh tomato sauce, a smattering of authentic mozzarella cheese, and a few large leaves of from-the-garden basil. Nothing about the flavors hit you right away and made you exclaim "Wow!". But it was good, so simply good, as if you had never really tasted pizza before and this was what pizza was supposed to taste like.
Okay, so I'm not normally a food blogger, and it may seem that I've gotten off track. But here's what I realized after an anticlimactic celebration of our 10 years together: The pizza is like our relationship. Most of the time there's no wow factor, no magical romance, no skipping heartbeats. The way we fell in love was slow, subtle, and with careful thought and trepidation. But our relationship is good, so good. We are best friends, partners in life, parents, and lovers. We admire each other, respect each other, help each other, understand each other. With Brandon my heart is at home. With Brandon I am most free to be me. In our purest moments I sense that we are experiencing God's heart for marriage.So here's to 10 more years of diving into the beautiful subtleties of life with Brandon.