With this ring...

Less than a month ago, I got married.

It’s a cliché, but you know what—sometimes clichés are true. It was the happiest day of my life. I got to marry the woman I love in front of the people who care for and support us the most. We didn’t want a blowout bash with a dance floor, fog machine, and DJ—even in non-Covid times, that wouldn’t have been our style. We kept it small: there were around 40 people in attendance. We married at our Unitarian church, and instead of partying into the night, had a lunch reception at a local place with killer food and drinks.

(I will say that I didn’t expect a minister’s wedding blessing to begin with the words “Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11…” but that’s another story.)

But you know what? Even if we’d gotten married at City Hall with no friends or family, it still would have been a great day. I got to put the ring on her finger. I got to tell her what was on my heart and promise to love and care for her for the rest of our lives together. And, at the end of the day, I finally got to call her my wife.

I write books where characters live happily ever after. We all know that in real life, you don’t say “I Do” and then write “The End.” The marriage is the point, everyone says, not the wedding. The wedding is only the beginning.

Here’s to new beginnings.