I DO

The condition of your heart surpasses all my trivial notions of what it is to love. To gaze into those unseen places where kind intention flourishes FIRST and before my own limited and muddled interpretation would surely bring about such understanding that would surpass all expectations.


“Hear my heart,” you plead when words are not enough to convey all that your soul contains. Meaning is lost between disappointment that circumstance brings and the imperfection of two, yet separate people longing to be likeminded and as one.

At the “I DO” there became US and yet within such a tiny word contains the possibility and passion of the universe. To endure the world and at once recognize its faults as not our own but separate from the perfection of our union would be perfection in itself. For all that comes outside and apart from US is of the world and does not exist within the promise of this new, singular creation born at the altar.

In giving me, then and now, I move to new territory where boundaries are less defined and vulnerability becomes thick as air. We breathe, yet moment-by-moment, that sacred trust that blazes new trails in the heart so that pain becomes inevitable yet sweeter through the gain.

You who have given all to this exploration are mightily revered even as you agree, once and again, to pay the consequences of commitment. To stay, though life and love lead often to more treacherous waters, is the definition of a man not only a standout amongst other men but a gatherer of God’s affections.

And though weakness and sorrow inevitably fade the boldness of the hue, let the soft changing color be cause for celebration, for that which remains is of our creation, a perfect, lovely painting of a life, together, well-lived.