“And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” – Genesis 1:31

I’m not sure that wedding anniversaries can find a better venue than a beach house on the Emerald Isle. Add to that dinner at a classic hole-in-the-wall Crab Shack restaurant, and we’re playing all the best notes of our favorite tune.

It’s the sort of place where asking for craft beer brings out a Corona or a Heineken, and where they offer seven versions of potato but one choice of vegetable.

But the shrimp and the crabs were delicious. And Rebekah and I couldn’t help but think of our early dates at New Smyrna Beach, where you could go into our favorite seafood place in wet bathing suits – because the floors were concrete, the atmosphere was “camp,” and all that mattered was the shrimp, the cheese-grits, the key-lime pie, the iced-tea, and the two of us.

That was all more than thirty-seven years ago now. Today we have children, children-in-law, grandchildren, careers that engage our passion and our imagination, and an amazing church family. A lot more matters than just the two of us. But, for these few days of vacation, this opportunity for rest and reinvention, everything else is on the back burner and it’s Rebekah and Derek at the beach again, grabbing some seafood at the Crab Shack, feasting on soul food from these thirty-seven (and one day) good years together.

And it is good. It is so good.

In love, and because of love – DEREK

(photos from a stormy afternoon at the beach)

anniversary portrait