August 10, 2008, 3:00 PM

The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle,
or a young stag.

Behold, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.

My beloved speaks and says to me:
"Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.

"O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is comely."

My beloved is mine and I am his ...

"Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
jealousy is cruel as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a most vehement flame.

"Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it."

A few minutes ago I stood in the kitchen, scrubbing out the sink, and I started crying. Really crying, not just a few tears in the eyes, and not from sorrow but from sheer overwhelming joy. I cried because I realized that a year ago on this day, at this time, I was standing at the altar, surrounded by family and friends, pledging myself to the best man in the world.

The fact that hundreds of days have passed takes me by surprise--and then it doesn't. Sometimes it feels like our togetherness goes back as long as I can remember. Love with Lou is deep waters, holy waters, like the river Lethe, causing me to forget those long years before him of trying to find love and failing painfully and awkwardly.

Those verses quoted above were read at our wedding, and with them comes a resurgence of the joy I felt at the making of Lou and I into one, into family. I have no regrets. He has given me nothing in the past year to make me less thrilled and surprised at my blessings.

I look forward to more of the same.