Weekly Photo Challenge: Here's to Forward!

Today my husband turned 33 and the world celebrated by sending me memories of our times together.  Even WordPress participated, when the Daily Post announced “Forward” as the theme of their weekly photo challenge.

That’s the first word Dave and I ever argued about, though it was destined to not be the last.

Of course, my husband wouldn’t call it that– he would say “arguing” has a negative connotation that implies an upsetting confrontation.  He would say our ideas fence and flirt, or that we often engage in a battles of semantics.

Dave has a way with words.

On the day we met, he caught me in the midst of a roar.  I was telling my little brother to just do something– anything.  That I was tired of people standing still when they were capable of so much movement.  Tired of people hiding from action, based on the illusion of the word ‘forward’.

Dave interrupted with an idea that presented me with a new view of stillness, one I’ll credit to his pen name:

“When I move, I don’t want to be stepping backwards, or crushing an ant, or spinning in a circle.  I want to move forward, towards better things.”
- Grayson Queen

Sometimes stillness is not fear or disinterest.  Sometimes stillness is an action in and of itself– a way of re-examining the world to ensure that the choices you make are truly chosen, a method of walking on a path that brings only better things.

Of course, I didn’t give in that easily.

Eloquence of the mantra aside, I wasn’t about to give my brother another excuse to not take out the trash.

We spent the next hour fencing over the appropriate usage of the word and it’s implications in society.  At some point, my brother did his chores just to get us to stop talking.

My weekly photo challenge submission, then, is the Rarasaur figurine Dave made for me, on the first painting he submitted to my art gallery, with the ant pendant he bought for me– all of which will always remind me of our first argument flirtation.

Happy birthday, Dave — here’s wishing you a future free of ant-squishing, circle-spinning, and backwards-stepping.   Here’s to better things.

Here’s to forward!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward : http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/forward/

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