To Craft an Eternity

The cat’s cradle, now entangled
Once carefully embossed
Lay quiet in the shadows,
Fortuitously lost.

For once upon a yesteryear
The threads were tightly strung
Through the fingers of a youthful heart,
A heart that had been won.

T’was a vict’ry of patience.
Wisdom gathered in the mind.
Hands freed to weave a pattern,
Leaving all mistakes behind.

All arrogance was vanquished
And selfishness suppressed,
Tamed and tempered to appeasement
By the gentlest caress.

Yet, the game now lay abandoned,
For “t’was but child’s play.”
And as the years march onward
We put childish things away.
But as the string doth wind and weave
And weld two hands to one,
So the circles of our lives
Are not so eas’ly undone.

For what was lost, has now been found;
The dust brushed from its face.
The deft hands restring the cord
To its once familiar place.

The knots are tied with increased care
Gleaned from maturity.
Two hands apart, now interlace—
To craft an eternity.

The Beginning of Us

This blog is dedicated to my new life with my husband, Will. After four years of knowing one another, we were sealed in the Manti temple on April 29, 2008. For all those that don't know our story, it all began with bloomers, bonnets, and handcarts...

In June of 2004, Will and I became a family. A trek family, that is. We were destined to end up in the same group during our stake pioneer trek, "Remnants of the Past Build Faith in the Future." Both he and I were reluctant to go. Will had just graduated from high school and was a little too cool to be hanging out with the youth. I wanted to spend time up in Montana with my cousins. Fortunately, however, the Lord saw differently. I was called to the stake youth committee and ended up planning the trek. During one of the planning meetings, I jokingly told my friend, Ali, that I was probably going to meet some hot boy in my group and hook up with him.
When I saw that Will was about my age, I decided to strike up a conversation with him. My first impression was that he was stuck up because he gave terse replies. Later on, I just discovered he was extremely shy. After pulling the handcart for ten hours straight, we discovered we had a lot in common. We both went to the same schools growing up, had the same teachers, the same classes, and even some mutual friends. We shared many interests, but had just never really noticed each other or had the opportunity to associate with one another. Come to find out, we even lived in the same ward when we were little.

After pioneer trek, Will started to pursue me and eventually won out against all my other love interests. We dated for about a year before he left on his mission to Paraguay. Shortly thereafter, I went up to college at BYU-Idaho and had many great experiences that shaped my life. I was a dedicated pen-pal to Will, for the first year of his mission. The latter half, I was just too involved in my own life.

When Will got home last summer, I was too reluctant to date him, mostly because I was too scared of what might be. I told him that he needed to date other people and adjust back to a non-missionary lifestyle. At the end of the summer, I came to my senses. We had a long-distance relationship for eight months before we were able to get married.

It seems trite to condense the whole history of our relationship into a couple paragraphs, but it's probably only interesting to a select few anyways. For those few, I hope you enjoy looking at our adventures together.