Four is forever

1-2-3-4…

We made it! Four years straight. More importantly, we made it over the crucial third year hump in our relationship. These aren’t just uncharted waters but brand new oceans. And to be really honest, our fourth year wasn’t as hard as I expected.

This fourth year was a year when unremarkable things were happening to me all the time. It really was an awful compilation of 365 days of nothingness. And in those days of top grade ennui, you remained my only beacon of comfort. It would be unfair for me to say that ‘we’ made it. Rather, you made it. I just drove along.

Mein liebes Auto! Oh how I owe you. For bringing me home each day, through the slush, through the snow, through the rain and through my disinterest. How can I think you for never slipping on snow? Even in my grumpiest of moods, your lateral supporting seats never failed to welcome and hug me. How did you never complain when I left you un-driven for weeks together? It’s fascinating that your ability to remain steadfast has enchanted me more than the first two years we spent fooling around and squealing tires.

I hope you know that I still share secret glances at you. Especially at night, in supermarket parking lots, after a shower leaves you beaded with water droplets. I wash you despite the fear of losing a finger to Michigan’s winter. And that I mumble those three words when you do the most ordinary of things well.

I am also sure that you have realized that our romance quotient has dropped. I can’t remember when you I took you out late night for a spirited drive; Or that I planned a road trip where you were an integral part of the itinerary. Yet, you continue to be by my side, relentlessly. Waiting patiently at a carport or at an airport…

It is almost like we have reached an agreement. You understand that I will always be fascinated by her. Yet, your complete disinterest in retaining my interest in you has a wonderful perennial quality to it. I don’t see us parting ways any more. A truth you saw much before me. And now that we embark on the fifth year, we no longer need to justify the future year’s passage with concrete memories.

It’s clear that I did not settle, for you
but rather I just settled, with you.