Last year, in June, John and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. We honored each day in that month by doing something small but significant in appreciation for all our years together. In my sketchbook, I painted a mini watercolor, illustrating our special ritual each day. Here is a photo of that page.
Mini watercolors for 2017
Since we enjoyed doing that so much, we’ve decided to do the same thing this year to celebrate our 31st anniversary in a similar way. I will be painting the mini watercolors again on a new page of my sketchbook!
- Day 1/30: We begin this little journey by planting sunflower seeds in a pot.
Tip of the day for a happy marriage: Make your relationship the top priority. - Day 2/30: Today we paused when walking in the park and contemplated our long shadows at sunset.
Tip of the day for a happy marriage: Commit to making a 100% effort. - Day3/30: A day trip!
Tip of the day for a happy marriage: Say thank-you for the big and for the little things.
We live about 90-minute minutes south and east of Ticonderoga NY. Since many of those iconic yellow pencils bear this name I’ve always been curious to visit and so John and I took a drive that way as part of our month-long celebration.
We had a blue-sky puffy-white-clouds day and a perfect 76ª F. temperature for the day trip. We didn’t find much related to the manufacturing of graphite pencils, because they were never made in Ticonderoga. What we learned though was that graphite was mined in the region up until the early twentieth century, but the mines had long since closed.
We did return home with a story though: The Mystery of the Ticonderoga Turtle.
On the roads where we live, it’s fairly common to see turtles crossing the road. Sometimes these turtles are large snappers, but more often they’re the smaller, but sometimes sizable, box turtle.
So we’re driving on one of these back roads in New York State on the way back to Vermont and John had just started telling me a childhood story that I had never heard from him, about a time when he was a small child and dressed up as a monkey for a play his mother had volunteered him for.
The telling of the story stopped when a turtle, about the size of a small melon, appeared directly in front of us in the middle of our lane.
Since turtles walk slowly and a pickup truck was right behind us, John drove directly over the turtle and the vehicle just behind us did the same.
John, wishing to save the turtle from possible harm, signaled and pulled to the shoulder of the road. There was no traffic so John backed up, keeping the turtle in view through the rearview mirror and rear window . I kept my eyes on the turtle as well, resting in the middle of the lane, through the side mirror to my right.
John’s intention was to drive over the turtle again and stop when it appeared in front of the car. Then he would pick the turtle up and place it safely on the side of the road.
John continued to back up and he watched as the turtle disappeared from view as our car passed over it. And then a couple of car lengths more. And then a little more. And I too watched the turtle through the sideview mirror until it disappeared from view. I was really worried that John had crushed the animal, but he was sure that he hadn’t.
Stopping in the middle of the road, John got out and looked under the car, around the car, on the shoulder of the road, in the grass at the side of the road… We were mystified The turtle had completely vanished! We couldn’t find it anywhere. Neither dead, nor alive!
What do you think might be the moral of this story?
What we learned from this is that turtles are really cool!
If you’re inspired by this project, follow it in Instagram #30DayCelebrationProject, and by all means go ahead, celebrate and paint your anniversary month, your birthday month or anything related to your life. It all counts!
Use this hashtag: #30DayCelebrateAndPaint and tag me so that I can be part of your celebration and applaud your work!
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