October and December have parallel anniversaries for me, one set that is joyful and the other, not so much.
This October is the fourth anniversary of my diagnosis with CFS. And December will be two years since I had to stop working, which is how I mark the beginning of my disability.
December, though, is also the month when I met the man I was going to marry, eight years ago, and October is the month I married him. It will be three years on the 27th and it still feels like I just met him.
What’s the significance of the parallels, or all these numbers? Nothing, really. I didn’t have a good handle on my topic for this week, and I made a last-minute decision to ask someone I admire to do a guest post. In the process of asking, it just occurred to me that not only has my favorite season arrived, but it’s also “anniversary season.” I also realized the other day that in two years it’ll be a decade that we’ve known each other, and our five-year wedding anniversary. That’s kind of a nifty, satisfying coincidence, numerically speaking. (Not numerologically speaking. That’s just silly.) So I thought I’d mention it.
It’s natural to mark the passage of time, but I don’t tend to get maudlin over the medical anniversaries. I just note their arrival, think about it for a bit, and move on. I do tend to get maudlin over my anniversaries with my best friend and love of my life…because in the end, what he’s brought into my life is much greater than what the CFS took away.
