Joyeux Anniversaire

Topping the Lazaretto Bridge, the brilliant sunshine is radiant on miles of brown marsh grass against a background of deep blue sky. There are no clouds. It is so bright the Bull River condos shimmer, as if they're Hula dancing in the distance. The giant flag over Fort Pulaski hangs limp. It's impossible to not feel good. No one on the Tybee Road is in a hurry stretching the drive by slowing down.

It is low tide so I find myself staring at the deep green of the marsh blanketed by the dead grass which is slowly giving way. Soon a high tide will roll in and carry away the brown, washing the marsh clean and leaving the brilliant greens of a new season.

What was once old has been made new.

Tomorrow is Joyeux Anniversaire for Sarah and me.

A joyous year has passed since we promised ourselves to one another under a full moon on the beach. Surrounded by the happiest of friends, it seems that everyone present, both our friends and strangers who had come for other reasons, all danced in delight. Children jumped in the pool and blessings rained down upon us.

I hold these things in my heart, staring at the life of the green grass pushing the dead of the past from its roots. The old in my life has given way to the new. I've certainly been reborn. Sarah has too. Together we're making a future. It's got a fairy tale feel to it.

That's not to say they're not scary moments when unexpected and frightening things happen ... when Goblins from the past try to grab old and drag us backwards ... where people who are good turn out to be evil and witches turn into Queens ... but its mostly been a year of joy.

In the world of fairy tales, everything turns out happily ever after and that's the main difference between make-believe and the real world that in which in live. Reality means nothing's perfect, bad things really do happen and nobody's ever as happy as they pretend.

In spite of such realities, I remain a firm believer in happily-ever-after. Good triumphs evil even when it doesn't seem like it ever will, unscrupulous people are undone by their scruples, toads turn into Princes, Saviors rise from the dead and the old is made new again.

It is a time to celebrate these things! Many of them have come true already ... I live with a Queen ... and so much more is just around the corner as we watch the green grass of the marsh grow into the light of today. Happily-ever-after is upon us.