You Can’t Stand Together Until You Can Stand Alone

A girl I had recently met and I were walking the rainy streets of Barcelona looking for a place to eat. It was a Wednesday, and little did I know, but I was 45 seconds away from seeing my future.

As we crossed the street, the clouds parted and the first ray of sunshine kissed the face of this comfortable stranger. When it did, in one fluid motion, she stopped, closed her eyes, tilted up her head, and smiled. And I was finally present enough to see all the beauty that existed in the world.

It lasted all of a second, but sometimes that all it takes.

For at that moment, I was me, and she was her, and it was enough for our worlds to collide.

I think of the day I saw my future often.

I think about how I had never seen anything more beautiful.

I think about how for the first time in my life someone had the power to make my heart race while simultaneously slow down my breathing.

I also think about what paths each of us had to have taken for that moment to exist.

For 32 years we existed on our own.

For 32 years we lived very different lives in very different worlds.

However, for 32 years we also took the unknown steps that would ultimately lead us to finding each other.

A million things could have happened for that moment not to exist.

If she hadn’t followed her curiosity to Ireland after university to learn English we never would have met.

If I hadn’t had the courage to leave a life I wasn’t happy living in the US for a place I had only read about in magazines we never would have met.

If she hadn’t asked me to get something to eat (something for 32 years she never had the courage to do) we would have never met.

If I hadn’t made an impression on someone who sent me to her building we never would have met.

If I hadn’t gotten sober.

If she hadn’t had the courage to leave a long-term relationship that was good but not great.

If I hadn’t.

If she hadn’t.

But on that October Wednesday eight years ago, all the things we had done to comfortably stand alone as strangers, led us to ultimately stand together as husband and wife.

Chocolate is incredible – It can stand on its own.

Peanut Butter is incredible – It can stand on its own.

However, I’ll be damned if Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups aren’t better.