For my wife, who has stuck through marriage to me for over a year now!

[shadow_of_sheol]

These words may not be my own, but they fit so entirely well that they mirror all my thoughts.

Love
by Roy Croft

I love you, not only for what you are,
But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself,
But for what You are making of me.

I love you for the part of me that you bring out;
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart
And passing over all the foolish, weak things that you can't help dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out into the light
All the beautiful belongings that no one else had looked quite far enough to find.

I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern but a temple;
Out of the works of my every day
Not a reproach but a song.

I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good,
And more than any fate to make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.