A Love Story: You Keep Me Safe, I’ll Keep You Wild
We were supposed to be on the beaches of Mexico this past week, but hurricane Patricia had other plans. As we were on the phone with the airlines, something my grandmother says often came to mind, “the only thing in life you can count on is change”. While it couldn’t apply more as we watched our plans of long walks on the beach and morning mimosas slipping away, I realized, as I often do, that Mike’s the one I want beside me navigating life’s curveballs.
They say that love finds you when you aren’t looking. At a country concert, twelve years ago, I would have never guessed that I would meet my now husband among a sea of people. I also didn’t know that the cute cowboy would also share the exact same birthday as me! (I’ll admit, I’m a year older.) While you could say that our chance meeting or that our shared birthday are something special, it pales in comparison to what comes later through marriage.
The best way I can sum it up is already done perfectly in the following quote – so I won’t try to tell it any other way.
“Because you will be safe in marriage, you can risk; because you have been promised a future, you can take extraordinary chances. Because you know you are loved, you can step beyond your fears; because you have been chosen, you can transcend your insecurities. You can make mistakes, knowing the other will be there to catch you. And because mistakes and risks are the very essence of change, of expansion, in marriage you will expand to your fullest capacity. Within the nurturing shelter of marriage, you will continue to grow and develop, so you can discover your individual paths and offer your gifts back to each other and the world. Marriage, then, makes you free-to see, to be seen, to love. Your souls are protected so your hearts can open.”
This quote says everything about how my marriage to Mike has transformed me. I have never felt more safe and have never been able to risk the way I have until I entered into a relationship with Mike.
One day, six years ago, I woke up and decided I wanted to start a bridal boutique. Mind you, it was also at the same time we were planning our wedding. Through all the trials and tribulations of owning a small business he fearlessly stood by me and let me build a dream. When the money ran low, he always found ways for us to make it through. When the stress from life and business started to wear on my body and re-introduced my autoimmune diseases, he was there (yet again), holding my hand through doctors appointments and surgeries to administering my weekly shots. When I brought home two more kittens when we already had a cat . . . well, he wasn’t happy at first . . . I honestly don’t know how he puts up with me! He keeps me safe, and I keep him wild.
He gives true meaning to ‘for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, in the good times and bad’.
Over the past twelve years, through all life’s chaos, he’s been my constant. I can’t think of a better way to wrap up this now “stay-cation” then to reminisce over the love that is our story.
- A Love Story: You Keep Me Safe, I’ll Keep You Wild - November 1, 2015
What a beautiful love story Nicole and Mike!
Wow! Sounds like the two of you were destined to be together. Thanks for sharing your lovely love story.