I got married on Wednesday afternoon.
Yup. That's him. The goofy mountain man I married.
I know, not the way you’d think the first post of a Vegan food blog would start out.
My fiance’ James and I got engaged during March of this year and wanted to legally get married before the end of the year.
Main reason? For tax purposes. We’ve shared a lot of financial expenses this year.
We still plan on having a ceremony. We even know the theme. 1940’s classic Hollywood travel! We’ve been playing the game of winning our wedding ever since we made the promise. Entering sweepstakes, reality shows, etc.
Cause who says it has to look a particular way?
Engaged couple wants to "Make A Deal!"
Cause who says it has to look a particular way?
I couldn’t have created a more perfect theme for this first blog post if I had brainstormed for hours.
Scratch that, the ENTIRE point of this blog.
(Wanna know the point and what Bald Vegan(ish) mean? Click here!)
Scratch that, the ENTIRE point of this blog.
(Wanna know the point and what Bald Vegan(ish) mean? Click here!)
Instead I stumbled upon it in the living of my day to day life, accidentally.
It started off as an, “Oh crap, we’re two days away from the New Year. We gotta go get married.”
Quick trip to the courthouse for the license - $90ish bucks! Really?!
All the ceremony slots were booked up at every spot through the New Year!
BLAST! Our plans are foiled.
Wait...isn’t it super easy to be authorized to marry someone?
We gotta know somebody who can do that?
James: “Phil is a licensed minister.”
PERFECT!
A few texts to grab some nearby “second family” witnesses and a public notary and BAM! We have a wedding!
A few texts to grab some nearby “second family” witnesses and a public notary and BAM! We have a wedding!
To our minister.
To our witnesses.
What we expected to be a low key thing “you couldn’t even consider a ceremony”, turned into Joyce, the notary, telling us we didn’t need to get anything notarized until after our wedding.
Then she got the brilliant idea of having her manager open their conference room so we could have a place to do it. She gathered her employees and had their receptionist, Christian, sing us a ballad once the deed was done.
I made James call his mother, Sandy, my future mother-in-law (current mother-in-law now I guess) in case something on Facebook was posted so she didn’t think we had eloped and were excluding her from the ceremony.
She laughed, “Well, you guys have never been conventional.”
As I stood laughing, standing next to empty boxes on the 5th floor of a notary office building, the sun was setting over the hills across the valley, I stared into the eyes of the man I will love forever and really got all over again, “This is it. And it’s perfect. From nothing who I am is the possibility of...love.”
And when my BFF’s mom, my second mama, shouted, “I’m sorry they must say some words!” When it came to me all that was there was to say, “I love you. And I’ll always love you. Forever. That’s it.”
I didn’t think I’d get moved but I did. By the silly serendipity of it all.
As I cried and random employees cried around me, I was just so present to love not having to look a certain way.
I toiled over what recipe to do for my first post.
THE PRESSURE!
Torn by the little voice in my head, it has to start off and be SUPER Vegan or else people will not respect you, you will be deemed a poser and no one will ever come back and read again.
Once I hugged that voice and thanked it for sharing and found out my fiance’s friends were hosting a breakfast dinner party that night my mind was made up quite easily.
I know what you’re thinking.
Because who says it has to look a particular way?
Why is it when the New Year rolls around we let out sigh of relief?
This is last huzzah of breath of the old year celebrating that it's OVER.
We even have a tradition where we get drunk and celebrate its end and the beginning of a new one.
It’s all an illusion.
There is nothing more special about today than any other day.
I did this Beyond Fitness seminar with Landmark Worldwide, where we talked about failure to bring follow through, fun and resilience to anything with your fitness.
Well I’ve failed to do that at the beginning of the year, the end and everywhere in between.
It has nothing to do with a day and everything to do with context and the future I am living into.
Some days I’m living into the future of dying poor, uninspired, unaccomplished and alone. (All of this despite any current wealth, accomplishments I have or my beloved fiance’.)
But this is about a context and future of my creation.
I don’t have to succumb to the petty depths of my thoughts.
They are not and never will be who I really am.
Let this be the year where the NEW YEAR context can be every day in ANY moment we chose.
Because all we have is now.
Now it’s easy to nod your head and “get it” as a concept versus discover it for yourself.
So discover this in your own life and cause a breakthrough in creating a NEW YEAR in any moment.
There was a moment where things could have gone a certain way. There is always a moment of choice. A moment where it could turn down a really ugly road.
Tonight I am driving for Lyft / Uber for most of the night with one brief stop to give my fiance’, hubby by law, a kiss as the bell strikes midnight.
As I drive people around tonight my context is being of service.
I invite you to celebrate to create the NEW year in every moment you can.
What if we were chasing the butterflies instead of running away from them?
Because nothing EVER has to look a particular way.
And my life is going to look the way I want it to. By choice and by design.
Breakfast tacos and impromptu weddings in all.
The New YEAR is made UP!
Just like marriage, just like being vegan or vegetarian.
So if everything is made up, what are you going to make up and create this year?
