The Passionate Shepherd To His Love
With apologies to Christopher Marlowe, 1592
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and vallies, dales and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.
And late at night, we will read together ,
You, your spy thrillers and me, Quiltmaker,
Then join in snoring: a guy and his gal,
Two melodious birds singing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And quilts to cover freezing toes-es,
While nightly you return, a tired fellow
And we join together, eating dinner on the patio.
Still other nights, you slip in ear-buds,
Watching murder mysteries, while the quilting continues;
An if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherd-swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each August-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.
************************
In honor of our anniversary this month, when Dave married me. . . and my four children. The reception was held two weeks after our marriage and after our honeymoon to Austria. My mother and father watched my four children while we honeymooned, then drove the car from Utah to California to meet up with us. I owe them big time.
Jet-lagged, I went to the florist’s on the afternoon of the reception to pick up my bouquet, but they’d made the wrong one. I refused to purchase it, and they promised me the right one this time. I went home and curled my hair, over-curling my bangs so I looked like I was in fourth grade, then went back to the florist’s. I hated my hair, but I liked the new bouquet.
My husband’s brother took the photos at our reception; we gave him five rolls of film, but only one turned out as he’d loaded them incorrectly in the camera (one of the photos is above). We had a lovely party with good friends and family, loaded all the gifts in our car, drove home, unloaded them, then stayed up opening gifts, drinking Martinelli’s after getting the three younger children in bed. At 11:00 p.m. Dave got back in the car to pick up the oldest child from a church dance, remarking as he came home that he bet he was about the only groom that had to pick up a teenager from a dance on the night of his wedding reception.
We laughed, fit ourselves to each other, and twenty-four years later, we are still here. Like the wooing swain in Marlowe’s poem, I did go with him and become his love, his wife, his partner and his resident quilter and to borrow another poet’s line: that has made all the difference.
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 
What a beautiful story Elizabeth! Happy Anniversary to you and your love S x
Happy Anniversary!
I like your version! Congrats to you both. He sounds very understanding. Happy quilting to you
Congratulations!!
What a sweet and wonderful story! Congrats on many wonderful years…..and many more!
A leap of faith and love – what a beautiful story! All the best wishes to you both – hope you enjoy many years to come.
Lovely, congratulations and many more. God bless.
Happy Anniversary!
Happy anniversary to you both. Hope your day is special.
Happy Anniversary! What a beautiful love story.
Aw! Love this. I also love your dress, I wish I’d gone the more modest route, as I’m somewhat horrified by most of the pictures due to the amount of cleavage on display! That’s my one and only regret, lol. Happy anniversary!
Awww . . . congratulations. I wish you both many more years together in love.
Happy Anniversary! I enjoyed hearing your story, you are such a lovely writer. Your story is close to my hear because my Mom married my wonderful stepdad 14 years ago and took on her 5 children in addition to 2 of his own.
Happy Anniversary to a very special couple. You are an example of working together as a team, as we were designed to do. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Congratulations! Here’s wishing you and your husband many, many more wonderful years together. (I say, though, that you look way too young in that photograph to be a mom of a 14-year-old, Elizabeth!)
What a wonderful story. Happy anniversary!
So glad to be your sister. Still remember that wonderful day. Look how far you have come together.
Happy Anniversary! I just love your story!!!
How sweet!! Congratulations, and I loved your poem!! (Came here from Sherri’s blog)