Dear Mr. Lincoln

Dear Mr. Lincoln,

A birthday thank you letter...a few weeks early, not a few days late, as many believe.

Thank yous that come in no particular order. 

Thank you for the almost 38 years of marriage...seriously...how did that happen?  Thank you for tending to, but not hovering over, me when I am ill or hurt or recovering from surgery. 

Thank you for my first digital camera.  I didn't even know I wanted one, but what pleasure I have derived from taking pictures.  Thank you for understanding that when both my cameras broke last week that I was going to be sort of lost without one.

Thank you for all your encouragement in my varied pursuits from real estate to bus tours to walking tours to after school programs to tutoring to conflict management to photo journaling to sewing to painting to knitting to whatever other thing that catches my fancy. 

Thank you for all the times you have had to finish projects I have started...white den, yellow striped walls, ineffective efforts at landscaping, well, you probably have a more complete list.  I try to block out my failings.  Thank you for not reminding me of them.

Thank you for Sanibel.  Thank you for understanding that we don't have to spend every moment there together.  Others at the condo probably think we have no relationship at all as you lounge by the pool and I sit on the beach, but I thank you that for us it is perfectly fine.

Thank you for enjoying musicals, for watching What Not to Wear, House Hunters, and brief moments of Hallmark movies.  I would probably worry if you watched too many minutes of Hallmark.

Thank you for the parent you are to our children/adults.  They should not doubt that you love them.  They know they can depend on you.

Thanks for making me laugh...a lot...whether it is from Seinfeld quotes or your own "original material."  Thank you for the surprise punchlines in life.

Thank you for the "stay where you are, I'm coming to get you," the day Charlie died.

Thank you for the tender heart that choked you up as you offered condolences to Frank Bennett over his father's death.

Thank you for the fun we are going to have together as grandparents.  I can't wait, but, yes, GrandFizzle (?) they will have to spend time on swings.

Thank you for the "Mr. Kenny" you are to Jenny and Julie, and your understanding of how much I love those little girls and want, no, need to spend time with them.

Thank you for making my time traveling with the M&M's so easy, and not "punishing" me in some nebulous way for leaving you at home.  Well, perhaps you do not need to enjoy my absence quite so much. Thank you for the times that you have in small and subtle ways made it clear that you miss me.

Thank you for making me feel that you still see the 22 year old girl that you married instead of the almost 60 year old aging woman that I am.

Thank you for washing and ironing your own clothes, lo these many years.

Thank you for your dependability, for being a man of your word, for the comfort in knowing that when you say you will do something, it will be done.

Thank you for all the times you call from work to ask if I need anything at the store, and for your genuine willingness to stop and get it.

Thank you for all the times you have graciously replied, "it's no big deal."

Thank you for all the times when I was freaking out that you asked, "is this going to matter in 5 years?"

Thank you for your predictability..."I've been to Scranton".....and for the surprising times.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness, your tenderness, your kindness, your integrity, your honesty.  Thank you that your faith is not words, but actions.

Thank you for your forthrightness and bluntness, even though I still contend that tact does not equal deception.

Thank you for all the times you did not say what you wanted to say because you knew it would hurt.  Thank you for all the times you said what needed to be said, even though you knew it would hurt.

Thank you for enjoying my rants and raves.  It is so nice to just "get it off my chest" in a safe enviornment.

Well, I'm sure that I have left out so many things for which you deserve a thank you.  But, happy 60th.  I will always have 6 months of the year where you are older than I. 

And, so for today, to everyone, I wish you the opportunity to say thank you to all those important people in your life.  I wish you people upon whom you can depend.  And, I wish you

blessings