OUR WEDDING VOWS
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
We have come full circle on this trip and it has been life changing. Our first stop and last stop was Jacksonville, FL and I find that it very much fits into our journey of self discovery. I am a very big believer in making your own fate.
The last two days of our drive were no longer about roadside stops or entertainment, but about finding a new direction for our lives. We were crossing roads that we had traveled many times in the past. Our hearts and heads were full of introspection.
Kenin and I started this trip as an escape. In all honesty, our lives were growing further apart and we were spending too much time working for things that, in the long run, don’t really matter. We gave up the paycheck and the materials that money can buy and packed ourselves into the car with our dogs and drove towards change, towards what we hoped would be salvation, for ourselves and our marriage. You know that your marriage can withstand anything, when you can spend over a month sitting less than 5 feet away from your partner in a car and you reach your final destination still wanting nothing more than to be together.
We drove through 24 states and clocked over 9000 miles on this journey. We laughed together and cried together. We yelled and screamed and kissed and made up. On this 35 day trip we saw so many awesome things in nature. We visited friends and family members. We shared countless intimate moments with people that mean so much to us. We rediscovered each other and we learned to start dreaming together again. When two people dream together it becomes something so powerful. When those two people share their dreams with other people along the way, it starts to become bigger than a dream. You start coming up with ways to achieve these dreams. You inspire each other. We reached out to so many people that we love and that love us. From our closest family members to the strangers we met for a brief second, every single one of them were inspired by what we were doing and inspired us in return. Everyone was supportive. This gave us both a sense of purpose. We want to give this back the only way we know how. We want to inspire you to Ramble On. Don’t dream…. Go out there and live it! You will find that you have more support than you could ever imagine. When we dream as a community, we can make it a reality.
Damn, that’s a big long trip. You’ll remember it forever though. Very cool.
Our next trip will be from Key West, FL to Dead Horse, AK. Should take us about 2 months to complete and we have never taken a vacation yet that we won’t remember forever :)
Congrats! It’s always great to take a trip down memory lane. Look forward to the future and onward! JR from