10 years ago, I did not celebrate my husband’s birthday not because I was mad him but because 10 years ago, we hadn’t met.

But every year that I have known him, I have celebrated today. I celebrate because today is the day the person who would shares my same exact sense of humor was born. Today is when the man who knows how to smile at me to make me smile back came to be.

Early on we discovered we were cut from the same cloth. We tended early in our relationship to finish each others sentences. And not just easy sentences either. As our relationship has progressed we have moved beyond the need for words. Now we can just look at each other understand exactly what the other is thinking. This is useful in social situations when what I am thinking is “please rescue me from talking to this idiot” and my husband swoops in to help.

We have gotten things like sleeping in the same bed down to an art. This was not always the case. There were many a battle over covers, sheets and even bed space. You might think that because I am the smaller of the two of us, I was constantly losing ground on the bed, not so. In my sleep, I am not a foe to be crossed. Many a night my husband ended up sleeping on the floor next to our bed because I had annexed much of the bed as my territory. Still more nights he shivered because I had rolled myself into a blanket burrito. Some how as we have moved through birthdays, I have learned to share the bed (it probably doesn’t hurt that we got a bigger bed).

Despite our wonder twin like relationship, we still have fights and disagreements. We are pretty awful at fighting actually since neither of us wants to stay mad. Neither of us seems able to sustain our anger once the other person gets upset. At that point we just want to end the fight and make up. But we are getting better at fighting and actually working through it. Maybe in another 10 years we’ll have that down.

Though we have joked that his birthday isn’t a big deal, it is a big deal to me. Every birthday he has is a gift to me. A gift of more laughs, more comfort, more hugs, more love.

So though he believes he is nothing special, he is so special to me. He is my soul mate and ensures I never feel alone.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Read! I love you!