OUT OF Limbo

My proposal to Leah

I can’t believe I’m getting to this now. 7 months later. Ok, I’ve been engaged for 7 months, but I never actually shared with you all how I did it. First off, it was her birthday. I picked her up and took her to Tampa, she had no clue what was going on. When we get to the harbor, to her suprise, we boarded a dinner cruise. Oh yeah. We had a fantastic evening. Danced, Did the birthday gifts, ate a fine dinner, etc. But then, I told her we needed to book it back home. So we mosi’d on back to Lakeland, where I took her to the same spot in town where I first said, I love you, which is also where she gave me my birthday gift. There, I took out an envelope, with a note (edges burnt to add class), and read the note allowed. This is what I read…

      Dear love of my life,

We’ve come a long way since October. Through the drama with friends, the laughter with each other, the good, the bad, the awkward. The sweet, the bitter, the gentle, the rough, we’ve stuck together. Since we’ve been dating, there has only been 1 day, that I did not see you in person at least once. Even for only a couple minutes. Thomas Fuller said it best. “Absence sharpens love. Presence strengthens it”.

I’ve told you all this many times, but I’m telling you once again.

Leah Smiley, I never thought that I could meet someone like you.
You are my friend.
You are my smile.
You are my everything.
You are a breath-taking reflection
of God’s undying love for me….
of how He pursued me…
of how He loved me even when I didn’t love myself.
You held my hand in the darkness
and you pulled me out into the light.
I love you…
And it doesn’t matter what happens
in this life as long as you’re with me.
When I look at you, I know that there’s a God.

Only someone so powerful and amazing, could
create someone as beautiful and as inspiring as you…just for me.
I love you….past my mind….beyond my heart….
I love you from my soul.
And that’s the space where only you and God dwell.

I honestly cannot put into words what you mean to me. John Lennon was right. “All you need is love”. You are the definition of LOVE, but that is not a strong enough word. Language in its entirety could not begin to tell the story of my heart. You are everything charming in the dictionary. Warm. Soft. Gentle. Vibrant. Funny. Charming. Blissful,and with a thousand more words from a thousand more languages there still could be no expression. You know, in life, we receive a wonderful opportunity, and that is to fall in love. I’m here to tell you that the love I have for you is unconditional, undying, enduring, passionate, and will stand the test of time. I cannot wait till the day we can join our lives together. I cannot wait to lie next to you at night. For you to fall asleep in my arms, only to wake to your beautiful smile. You’re light pierces through me left and right. Backwards and forwards. From beginning to end. In my toil and in my slumber. You see and bring out the best in me. I will forever be indebted to you, for all that you’ve brought into my life. So to repay you, I promise you my heart, and all the love in it for the rest of my life…. You are the light in my eyes, the happiness in my heart, SO, on a night like tonight, I promise to love you through the good and the bad, for better or worse, till death do us part, through sickness and in health. And even though we are not yet married, I will never break that vow.

You know, the Greeks believed that every star in the sky had an epic story to tell. There’s hundreds and hundreds of these telling of love and tragedy. Whether it be Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the perils of the sea, and her warming his stone cold heart in the process. OR, whether it be Acontius and Cydippe, who became obligated to wed, when they stated their undying love aloud at a city festival. OR, whether it be Galatea and Acis. When Acis, the river God, became a rapid river torrent, to break the fall of the rocks that Polyphemus, hurled at Galatea, when he heard of their love. The rocks flowed into Sicily, and the God’s flung them into the sky, where they now rest as constellations. All the stars in the sky have history, and tonight, Leah, they tell a story of our own. We become history. A constellation in the sky.

I’ll give you the shoulder, I’ll give you the hug. I’ll give you the kiss. The embrace. The comfort. I’ll feed you, I’ll clothe you, if you need it. I’ll love you forever and ever. That’s how we start from this moment. When we leave here tonight, we take that with us. Tonight, we cast our hopes and dreams into the sky. Tonight they are a constellation. From this night forward they will never cease to proclaim our story. Our Greek myth,

“The day I met you is the day my life began”

And after I read the note, it was already niagra falls on her side, I told her “Now with that being said, I want you to look in the sky. And this is what followed. I had friends and family on the other side of the lake record it. Click links to watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC4wUKAIFYg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmG4SMFWVy4

“Life moves pretty fast….”

“….You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”. These words always spoke true to me. From Matthew Brodericks mouth, to my mind. Ok, I know I said, I’m back. I’m back. That was 4 months ago. I lied. I could give you a B.S. excuse and say it was cause I was too conflicted with personal reason, but that’s not the truth. The truth is, I forgot about what calms me down. Relaxes me. Makes me speak my mind, my opinions. The opinions that no one can change, no one can forbid. And although I’ve faced an extremely traumatizing weekend, the past 4 months haven’t lacked to suffice. I topped this heck of a weekend, by taking a load off, and taking Leah to the drive-in to see the double-feature of Leap Year, and It’s Complicated. Just what I needed to snap back and remember, there’s more to life than trying to make EVERYTHING run smoothly.  Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. You already put the carrots in the stew. You just gotta let them marinate a little bit. And note: This trauma over the weekend didn’t even have to do with me, so I can’t imagine how the ones it does have to do this feel, so I hope they are reading this. Take these words into consideration. Tomorrow, you’ll still be just the same is His eyes, as you were at your brightest moment.

Now, Not that my posts often express someting personal, but here, ladies and gentleman, is a little piece of what I’ve been up to. In October, I got offered to go on tour with my good friend Johnny, on Bike for the Light, http://www.bikeforthelight.com/, and that tour will begin on March 1st. I’ll be driving the bus for him. We’ll be getting back from the tour in July. Now I know what you all are thinking “WTF! You’re trying to plan a wedding! You’ll be getting back 2 months beforehand! And how can you leave Leah that long?! Won’t you miss her?!?”. Yes to all. Leah is the love of my life. That was my biggest hesitation when asked if I wanted to go. However, we worked outa great plan. Johnny just got engaged as well. Actually, his wedding is exactly a week after mine. And no way his fiancee, Sarah, is letting him leave for 6 months without seeing her. So, we’ll be flying back home for a week, every 8 weeks, and halfway through those 8 weeks, Leah and Sarah will be flying out for a weekend to see us wherever we’re at. So I’ll be seeing Leah every 3 weeks or so. And with the benefit of webcams and the latest technology, I can see her face every night. And the way I see it, being engaged sucks. Being a boyfriend was awesome. You always were chillin’, waiting for the next leap. Still finding out eachother’s mysteries. Then once you’re a fiance, you just want to marry this person!!! Having to wait that long to call this person your wife is horrible! So, I definitely think the tour will speed things up big time. Besides, absense makes the heart grow fonder. I also feel like Leah could get a lot more of the wedding planning done without me here to distract her.

    But other than that little boomer, and of course the wedding planning, that’s all that’s been happening while I’ve been absent. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas came and went. There’s been it’s ups and downs. Mostly just with people. I haven’t the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out. But life is good. Great. The man upstairs never ceases to amaze me.

“Disciples are hand-crafted, not mass-produced.” - John Ortberg #thenines

Don’t leave: When Winter comes knockin’

If you’ve ever wondered, Hey, I wonder if I have any paper cuts and don’t know about them, I suggest you peel an orange. Holy crap! I wasn’t wondering if I had any, but I found out pretty fast.