Happy Birthday, Handsome!

Today is Jason's Birthday. I thought and thought about how to honor this man who means more to me than any human alive, and my words fall short. I have always loved this poem because it expresses a bit of what I feel about my husband. My best daydreams about "the one" from my single years fell woefully short of what God in His mercy and grace has given me in Jason. XXVI. "I lived with visions for my company..." by Elizabeth Barrett Browning I lived with visions for my company Instead of men and women, years ago, And found them gentle mates, nor thought to know A sweeter music than they played to me. But soon their trailing purple was not free Of this world's dust, their lutes did silent grow, And I myself grew faint and blind below Their vanishing eyes. Then thou didst come---to be, Belovèd, what they seemed. Their shining fronts, Their songs, their splendours (better, yet the same, As river-water hallowed into fonts), Met in thee, and from out thee overcame My soul with satisfaction of all wants: Because God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame.