Husband Sketches the Happiest Moments He Shared With Wife
Curtis Wiklund is arguably the world’s sweetest and most creative husband… ever. Are you wondering why we would award him this title? Is it just because he loves his wife very much and showers her with care and affection? Well, that’s partially true, but for us, love and care aren’t the only criteria for dubbing someone as the world’s best husband.
It takes more than that to become an ideal spouse to your partner. So, what makes Curtis unique and worth praising is his gratitude for having such a lovely family. He didn’t only feel so but decided to tell the entire world about it. Hence, he went a step ahead and drew a series of heartfelt sketches showcasing all those crucial moments he felt grateful for. As you scroll through these images, you’ll definitely feel his love for his wife, Jordin, and kids. We bet you will shed a tear or two, and ultimately you will agree that there’s no other husband in the world as loving and sweet as Curtis Wiklund.
The Everlasting Bond
When we look at the sketches Curtis drew, the first thing that strikes us is that there aren’t any colors used to express emotions. Still, we cannot help get the same feelings and emotions as Curtis might be going through while creating them. We wonder why he opted to use black and white colors only? The answer isn’t as difficult to determine.
According to Curtis, when your heart is filled with love and joy, you find solace and peace in the most ordinary of things. It’s not the use of colors that would make the sketches extraordinary but the message he wants to convey.
“If we understand there is a certain belonging to each other, then it helps to go with the flow of life. Sometimes, people come together for a short time, as that is the design of that relationship. Sometimes, it’s a lifetime. Sometimes, it’s much longer than one life on Earth,”
Donna Goddard in her book Love’s Longing.
There’s No Place Like Home….
Do you remember when you fell in love with someone and started dreaming about building a future with that special person? Usually, the future involves having a place you can call home and a family to call your own.
This sketch shows this exact moment. Curtis explained that he drew this moment as it was very special for him. This was when he was returning from Ikea with his wife as they were finishing their newly bought home. This was one of the happiest days of his married life as the couple was ready to move into their home, which they believed was like a sanctuary to protect them from all evils and calamities.
“Home wasn’t a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go,” the true essence of home.”
Sara Dessen discusses in her book What Happened To Goodbye
Exploring Life Together
Curtis and his wife were best friends. He takes us on a trip he embarked on with his life partner in this image. This was a significant journey for them as they realized how much each meant to the other. Curtis believes in spending quality time with his partner as much as possible, given the hectic work schedules both had back then. And this trip helped him to get to know his wife better.
For Curtis, traveling was an ideal way to know the other person inside out. And, after knowing his wife better than before, he realized how precious their relationship was. Curtis was sure that this trip was one of their most memorable vacations. And, now you also are a part of this amazing memory.
“I have found out there is no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them”
Mark Twain
Blissful Days
Is there something more beautiful and gratifying than waking up every morning with a smile on your face seeing the partner you love lying beside you? We don’t know if there is anything more worthwhile, and Curtis agrees. He sketched this moment to show the importance of more minor things and seemingly ordinary moments in life.
Curtis said that he looked forward to the mornings because he got a unique sense of completion and fulfillment when they got ready, made breakfast, ate it together, and kissed each other goodbye as they both left for work. These may look like insignificant things to many, but these small gestures made their bond as a couple stronger and better for Curtis. What else could be more fulfilling than having a partner who loves you unconditionally and is truly Yours?
Enjoying Me Time– Together
The very idea behind the feeling of togetherness is that you must feel comfortable and at peace when in the company of your significant other. That’s the sign of a healthy relationship. Contrary to common perception, togetherness isn’t just about messaging each other throughout the day and spending as much time as possible. These are things that negatively affect a relationship.
And that’s what Curtis wanted to portray through this sketch. A healthy relationship needs space, and time for yourself is an essential element. That’s something we call Me Time. This sketch conveys a strong message regarding the importance of space in a relationship. It shows how Curtis and his wife enjoy their respective me-time every night without having to leave each other’s company. They do not always ask for attention but just feel safe and comfortable when both are under the same roof.
A Love Like No Other
Curtis believes that certain elements help create the perfect bond between a husband and wife. One of these elements is appreciativeness. There’s no doubt that every person is different, and every individual is gifted. It is upon us to realize their potential and admire their talents.
And that’s exactly what Curtis wants us to realize through this sketch. It is generally observed that couples don’t appreciate each other’s achievements as wholeheartedly as they should. That’s not because they are jealous of each other’s success or skills but because each one is so engrossed with self-love. That’s why Curtis drew this sketch to help people realize there’s no point in striving to be someone else’s carbon copy or compare your spouse to others. No relationship is 100% perfect, ever, so why strive for it. Instead, one must try to make their relationship beautiful in their own way, the way they like it to be.
Becoming the Best Version of Oneself
Nowadays, every couple gets impressed by the flawless photos and overrated couple goals that Instagrammers, especially celebrities and influencers flaunt on their profiles. They don’t realize that all of this is just an illusion crafted perfectly to gather more likes and followers. In real life, things aren’t as picture-perfect always the way Instagrammers try to portray.
So, Curtis advises all couples to stop being in awe of this kind of life because it is fake. He pleads young couples to try to spend more time with each other and less on social media. Every relationship needs time and effort, which we are not ready to invest. Curtis is different because he believes that a relationship requires individual effort from each partner to become a lasting one. Through this sketch, Curtis wants to relay the significance of continued growth as a couple and an individual as this is how you ensure a long-lasting relationship. If you are giving it your best and the other isn’t, even then there’s no point having such a toxic relationship. So, always try to be the best version of yourself by continuing to grow as a person and a partner.
Ego- What’s that?
We can only follow our dreams and aspirations or achieve our life goals when we have a strong support system backing us. Before marriage, our family and siblings encourage us to pursue our goals. Once you are married or in a relationship, your significant other would persuade you to aim high and achieve the unthinkable.
Though not all couples are as lucky to have such a solid backing, Curtis is grateful to have one and created this sketch to let the world know how thankful he felt. His wife always appreciates his talent and is happier than Curtis himself whenever he achieves success. He is a staunch believer in the positive impact of supporting each other as it allows one to stay focused on their dream, and our goals appear accessible and approachable. Conversely, when you do not help your partner, they cannot pursue their goals confidently.
In Good Times and In Bad
A critical promise you make to your partner when getting married is to be with them in good times and bad. But, the unfortunate reality is that most of us forget about this vital requirement of a healthy married life. We feel happier during good times but become distant when tragedy occurs, or they find themselves in a challenging situation.
Curtis says that the best test of true love is how one behaves during challenging situations rather than their attitude in good times. Such as, we all might be happy to shower our lovers with praises when they are young and smart, but the moment they get overweight or sick, we start resenting them for their looks and ailing health. Curtis never did that. He entered the sacred institution of marriage with a solid resolve to make it work, and he contributed honestly to that. Same goes for his wife. They stuck to each other’s side during health issues, financial crises, and bad moments. That’s what strengthened their bond the most.
Be a Shield for your Partner
Marriage isn’t all about sharing a room and having an intimate relationship. It involves many other aspects that one cannot turn a blind eye to. For instance, we generally start taking our partners for granted. Sleeping next to them doesn’t look like an out-of-this-world thing, while reality is the comfiest of all moments in one’s day.
Imagine a scenario when you come home exhausted from work, and there is no one to cheer you up and make you feel relaxed. That’s the beauty of a marital bond. It allows us to have someone around to look after you when you are sick and hold you back during your trying times. So, from now on, don’t just wait for those intimate moments to show how much you love your partner. Prove to them how precious their presence in your life is by constantly hugging and holding hands.
Work-Life Balance
You will notice in Curtis’ sketches that he has given a lot of importance and preference to seemingly insignificant and less extraordinary moments of his life. According to him, this wasn’t a deliberate attempt because, for him, life becomes beautiful only because of these little moments. For some, such events probably don’t matter much, but for Curtis, these are everything.
Curtis claims that he finds joy in the most ordinary things and activities of the day, such as cooking a meal of his wife’s choice, surprising her with flowers, or even making her a cup of coffee. He believes that these things hold meaningful messages for our partners and can play a key role in making the relationship stronger and long-lasting. Curtis feels sad that simplicity has no value in this generation that’s obsessed with flaunting their picture-perfect life on social media, while true happiness lies beyond that.
Meaningful Actions
In Curtis’ works, little moments have been given a lot of preference because life is made beautiful because of the little moments we think do not matter. Getting flowers, cooking something that your partner likes, meaningful gift, even participating in something that your partner wants, but it is not exactly your cup of tea, can play a significant role in strengthening the relationship. It’s the little things that make the other person smile. Do not always try to go big and beyond because simplicity is valued. Another example of this would be massaging your partner’s feet without asking you to after they have a long rough day at work. It is actions like these that portray how much you care for them or love them without putting it into words or texting them.
“Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two separate passions, not merely different but opposite. Love does not make itself felt in the desire for copulation (a desire that extends to an infinite number of women) but in the desire for shared sleep (a desire limited to one woman),” .
Milan Kundera in, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Always Together
It is a common perception that being together all the time can take a toll on the couple as all the attention gets too overwhelming for your partner to handle. But, Curtis thinks this is the most lovable and cherishing feeling for him that his partner loves him and wants to be with him. This act of love generates a unique sense of belongingness, which people don’t realize at the right time.
We mainly realize the actual value of love and having a caring partner in our lives only after losing them. Curtis never wanted this to happen. Therefore, he decided to share every moment of his life with his wife, and he was lucky to have found a partner who felt the same. Sticking together, sharing happiness and sorrow, and having each other’s back in troubling times is all a marital relationship is all about, apart from love, which is the most crucial element of it.
“Together, we form a necessary paradox; not a senseless contradiction.”
― Criss Jami, Healology
Feel the Love
There’s a huge difference between a kiss coming from a person who genuinely loves you and a kiss from a lustful partner. When a lover kisses his/her muse, it bursts with a plethora of positive energy and emotions, whereas a kiss out of lust is just a forced act of love. That’s the worst feeling anyone can ever have.
Curtis sketched this particular moment because he believes a kiss out of love relays pure joy and peace. Sometimes a kiss may happen because of love, but it could be due to underlying fear or grief. Nevertheless, a lover’s kiss is easily detectable as it is passionate and a source of pleasure. What can be better than being married to someone you love and sharing kisses all the time while eating, texting, before going to bed, and after waking up in the morning.
“Her lips touched his brain as they touched his lips, as though they were a vehicle of some vague speech and between them he felt an unknown and timid pleasure, darker than the swoon of sin, softer than sound or odor.”
James Joyce describes a kiss in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Starting a New Chapter in Life
We already told you about one of the most pleasant things one can expect to do after finding true love- building a family together. Parenthood is a blessing and whoever gets to relish this miraculous phase of life is truly blessed.
Curtis created this sketch where his wife shows her pregnancy test to showcase his emotions when he heard that his wife was pregnant with their first child. They didn’t know what would happen in the future because, at that time, all they could feel was a sense of pride and thrill. Curtis was sure that he and his wife will support each other no matter what happened now.
“What it’s like to be a parent: It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, but in exchange it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love.”
Nicholas Sparks in The Wedding
New Beginnings
Marisa de Los Santos explained parenthood as a sudden change in one’s life and said that it is understandable how young couples react to the news, as they usually become nervous and confused. In Love Walked In, Santos wrote that:
“No one is ever quite ready; everyone is always caught off guard. Parenthood chooses you. And you open your eyes, look at what you’ve got, say “Oh, my gosh,” and recognize that of all the balls there ever were, this is the one you should not drop. It’s not a question of choice.”
Marisa de Los Santos
Santos is right about the idea of parenthood because no one is ready for this change. Still, we accept it graciously and happily when we have bestowed this responsibility. We try to fulfill this responsibility in the best possible way and become the ideal parents to the child. Similarly, Curtis and his wife are confused and clueless as they also were caught off-guard, but they are fully ready for the roller coaster of emotions and changes parenting would bring forth.
Family-hood in Full Swing
Curtis’ family was increasing, and he was thrilled and grateful for everything he had achieved. This sketch reminds me of when the couple was expecting their third child and trying to manage work and life responsibilities together. They did find it hard to cope with, given that it was challenging to take care of two young kids while a third one was on the way.
However, when there is a will, there is a way that they fully believe in as a couple. Never even once had they left each other’s side. When Curtis was busy, his wife looked after their babies, and later Curtis used to take up his fatherly duties while she took a nap. They had to compromise upon so many things, such as their much-loved Me Time and intimacy. Curtis realized that this could be detrimental to their relationship, so he decided to take his family on vacation to break the monotony. He was sure that traveling with kids would be a fantastic experience, and he wasn’t wrong.
Cherish this Unique Gift Called Family
One piece of advice that Curtis would like to give young couples is always to cherish their family. He perceives it as a precious gift one must always keep safe and protected. That’s because family is what keeps you collected even during the harshest phases of life. Jenna Morasca rightly said that :
“family is a unique gift that needs to be appreciated and treasured, even when they’re driving you crazy. As much as they make you mad, interrupt you, annoy you, curse at you, try to control you, these are the people who know you the best and who love you.”
Jenna Morasca
Curtis loved his family very much and wanted to enjoy as much time as possible until his kids grew up and got on with their lives. He enjoyed the simplest things like dining together, watching the TV, or sipping coffee because the feeling of closeness multiplied when they were all sitting together.
Life’s Most Precious Moments
After having three kids, Curtis and his wife had become a pro at parenting. Both had settled well into life as parents and could efficiently juggle between their responsibilities without letting it affect their relationship. Now, their favorite past time was reading their kids bedtime stories. Curtis made it a compulsory part of their nighttime routine as it helped him create a bond with the kids.
This sketch tells a lot about how seriously Curtis took his responsibilities as a parent. He wanted to help his kids fall asleep while getting acquainted with their culture and values. And, nothing could impart the message as strongly as bedtime stories. But introducing kids to their culture wasn’t the only motivation to read them bedtime stories. The couple genuinely enjoyed this activity. It gave them immense pleasure.
“The stories we are told as children do, undoubtedly, mark us for life. They are often stories of dark and terrible things, and we are usually told them just before the lights are turned out and we are left alone; but we love them. We love them when we first hear them, and even when we are grown, and think we have forgotten them entirely, they never lose their power over us.”
Neil Bartlett wrote in Skin Lane
Your Most Prized Possess- Family
For Curtis, nothing mattered more than building a family. The couple had reached a stage in life where spending quality time with their young children seemed like the most critical task at hand. Their kids were growing up real fast, and they had to keep the pace to help them become better people and productive members of the community.
Curtis was more concerned about their upbringing as he wanted to make sure they could develop a positive perception of the world and their surroundings. He looked forward to having a meaningful discussion with his kids about how one should live life. Another thing that compelled him to spend most of his free time with his kids was that this time would be gone soon, and the kids would become adults. They will have a life of their own. So, Curtis wanted to make every minute count.
“Family is a unique gift that needs to be appreciated and treasured, even when they’re driving you crazy. As much as they make you mad, interrupt you, annoy you, curse at you, try to control you, these are the people who know you the best and who love you.”
Midnight Snacking
This sketch shows the fun side of pregnancy when the mom-to-be craves food at the oddest hours. Curtis never hesitated from fulfilling his wife’s demands throughout the three pregnancies. This sketch was made when his wife was expecting their third baby. She used to have the strangest food cravings in the middle of the night back then. Sometimes she wanted a pizza and sometimes a burger. Curtis found it strange that he also got the same craving as his wife and munched on the snacks every night. They used to call it midnight snacking
“As much as we need to take care of and protect our kids, we also need to realize the importance of protecting our marriages, too. Never pass up an offer for someone to watch the kids. And never stop dating your wife.”
Staying Strong- Jodi and Curtis
Most of the sketches drawn by Curtis have now been published as a book titled US. Curtis and Jordin, his wife, are professional photographers and are one of their town’s best wedding and commercial photographers. Jordin works a full-time job and takes care of their three kids.
But now that kids have passed their infancy and toddlerhood, it has become much easier to manage work-life responsibilities. Jordin also helps Curtis in his business whenever she can. When asked about the drawings Curtis made to express his life with her, she became teary-eyed and said his sketches made their love story all the more beautiful.
The Book
“It’s hard not to tear up while scrolling through affectionate Curtis Wiklund’s illustrations.”
Bored Panda
“His sketches capture the beauty in ordinary love.”
Huffington Post
What Others Think
“A beautiful tribute to love, proving there’s still room for romance even in daily life.”
Aplus
“Curtis Wiklund has drawn the sweetest, most charming sketches that document the love he shares with his wife, Jordin.”
TODAY.com
“I first took her to a dance because I wanted to be with my friend. I didn’t want to go with a date, I just wanted my friend there. Eventually we started dating, dated through college, got married… I married my best friend.”
The Detroit Free Press (Video Interview)