Today we have been married for four years! Almost a third of our relationship and 1/7th of my entire life. And the longer we are married, the more I realise how much of a gamble marriage is.

Everyday two people choose one person over every other, even when they know that the strength of a relationship is no certain thing. We stake our futures on a hope that when we're old and we've lived enough life that we'll still want to be together, still content with a choice we made when we were different people. 

Marriage is not a guarantee of a happily ever after, it's the start of a story, not the grand finale. So I can't say if our marriage will make it when so many others don't, but I do know that no matter how much we've struggled and no matter how many obstacles life has thrown at us, that our relationship has always been a sanctuary, the easiest, most sturdy thing about my life, and if I had nothing but that, I know from experience of having nothing but that, that it would be enough to make me genuinely happy.

My husband has always been the one person I want to share my thoughts and time and triumphs with. He's the first person I want to see and speak to when something momentous or entirely uninteresting happens. He's the person against whom I measure every other person, he's the best one I know. And while I can't know if we'll always make each other happy as we always have, I know that I hope that we will, and if I had to go back and choose again, I'd always choose him.

I'm not a gambling person, but I do like our odds.