Nineteen years married this month and ten of them with Hunter in the picture. When Ashley Bailey-Smith left for a girls' trip last week, it was the first time Hunter and I were on our own for that long.
No backup. No one quietly making sure the calendar, the meals, the horses, the dog, and the humans all lined up.
It wasn't quite The Breadwinner (Nate Bargatze) but it was close enough to be humbling.
Here's what I keep thinking about: I spend my days building companies around the idea that systems matter more than heroics. Then I spent a week discovering that the most important system in my life is a person. And sadly, I had been treating her too much like infrastructure. Reliable. Invisible. Assumed.
And she does it while working as an assistant prosecuting attorney. That's not a job you clock out of. She carries cases that matter to people on the worst days of their lives, comes home, and then holds our world together on top of it.
Nineteen years of her holding that line so I could go build things. One week without it and the wheels didn't come off, but I could hear them.
So this one is just a thank you, out loud.
Thank you for the nineteen years. For the thousand things a week that nobody sees and everybody depends on. For doing hard, serious work all day and still having something left for us at night.
Hunter is who she is because of you. I get to build (or fail trying) because of you.
Say it out loud. To the people in your life who hold the whole thing together while you get the credit for building it. And certainly don't wait for a week alone to figure out who the most important one is.
Welcome home, Ash. Hunter and I are beyond lucky, and we know it.