Every anniversary is worth the wait

Fifteen years ago today I was sitting, waiting for Diana to arrive to the Salt Lake City LDS temple, where we were scheduled to get married that day. I was a bit nervous, because in the past I had made plans to get married before, enough times that when my mother called my brother Jim and told him I was engaged he responded, “Again?”

Diana did arrive and we did get married that day and today we celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary, clearly marking the best 15 years of my life, or any life, if I can be so narrow minded.

The fidgetiness during those moments of waiting was well earned. A few years earlier I had made an appointment to get married at the same place, and later called to cancel it. The woman on the other end of the phone asked if I wanted to reschedule it. I wanted to say, “Yes,” but there was no reason to, and I sensed she was pained by my response. I may have been projecting.

I had been to a few weddings in LDS temples. In Salt Lake City, probably more than any other temple, it can be like a scene out of the movie “Cousins,” where one of the weddings takes place in a location called “Weddingland.” All morning long you see people following a different bride all over the grounds. To someone not of the LDS faith, who because of the church’s unusual position of only letting card-carrying members into the temple ceremonies, the scene must be especially dreamlike. There were 42 weddings at the Salt Lake City temple the day Diana and I got married, but to an onlooker must have looked like thousands.

Those moments for me, though, only came after that time of waiting before Diana arrived, as I wondered could this really be the “due time of the Lord.”

Another ritual Mormons undertake is one of a patriarchal blessing, in which a particular priesthood holder gives a blessing regarding the future. The language is often left to interpretation, but when my patriarch told me that one day I’d get married in the temple and he included “in the due time of the Lord,” I feared that meant it was going to take me a while. And indeed it did.

The reason was pretty simple. I wasn’t ready. I thought I was, several times, but I wasn’t. I needed to grow up. I’m a slow learner and adulthood took a while to set in.

Thank goodness. I wouldn’t be with Diana otherwise. She’s beautiful and brilliant. She’s patient.

She arrived that morning 15 years ago as eager as I was to get the ceremony going, though unaware she was a bit late and not especially tuned into what tardiness that day might mean to someone who had waited 13 years for that day to finally arrive.

As always, Diana was worth the wait.

Happy Anniversary Diana.

Here’s a post to a Salt Lake Tribune story about young LDS men taking their time getting married.