The Elopement

Jonathan

Ten years is a significant amount of time. It’s good to remind ourselves of this, to say that fact out loud and to reflect on our sacrifices, our transformations, our bond, and the love we have experienced together across the past decade of our life. And as time marches forward - the world has brought us together, our two lives intertwined, and I have loved and cherished every single moment we have spent together. 

Time provides us that space we need to grow; to grow and mature physically, to grow as individuals and as partners, to grow our interests, our bond and our love, to grow our family, to grow our home and garden, our friendships and community, to grow our experiences and memories and the very meaning we find in life. We are so blessed by this world to have found each other, to love each other, to grow and experience this one life together.

But what are the odds? 

What are the odds of you injuring your foot and working the front desk at Richmond Ballet right as I start working there? Or that I’d move to Norfolk with you so early in the relationship? What are the odds that we’d survive a tree landing on top of our car while traveling at 55mph? That the weather would work out so perfectly for us today?

The odds don’t matter, and we know this. If there are odds we’ve beaten them. Whether it luck, fate, or the powers I do or don’t believe in, something out there has blessed us in this life. 

A Confucius proverb says “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.” Last fall ... Id say we both began our second lives, together, and my heart is full of hope and joy and love knowing that it will be lived as your husband.

We’ve chosen the perfect ceremony for us and I couldn’t be more pleased with this moment we have created for ourselves. For others - their moment may be full of distractions, their ceremony a spectacle, and their time for each other - in this moment of intimacy and trust and vulnerability - fragmented amongst friends and family. 

for Us, we have this private moment to share, together, accompanied by nature as our witness - the sounds of the flowing James, the smell of moist earth, Richmond’s cool river air brushing against our skin - standing here, surrounded by subtle

Messages of its approval, as we take this sacred vow of love with each other. 

I do want to recite one poem that reminds me of my love for you:

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

By E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Kierstin

*Please refer to the video if you want to listen to my vows :)