There is a love story that I’ve never written, for it was far beyond the realms of we mere mortals to narrate. The tale was so pure that it was only whispered to us as children and discarded as a fairy tale when we grew and found fault with the world. It is not simply a story of an attraction, a bond or a joining of two lives; it is the tale of a series of awakenings deep within us. Like the untapped resources of our minds, this stirring happens in those slumbering segments of our human hearts that await for the one small spark of life to rouse them into being only once in a lifetime. Like the rarest of flowers that bloom only once every thousand years, these waking hearts sing to their kindred in a tone lost through the millennia. They call only for the briefest of moments with the hope of all life to be answered before the song is complete and the slumber returns. The song can be for prince or pauper, for princess or maid; for there is no earthly wealth that the kindred awaits for, only the treasure that abounds when the song is echoed and the magic begins.
It is said that these songs can be heard over many miles as if the greatest songbird or the mightiest whale that ever lived had found the true pitch of David’s lyre. And in the true secret of all who have heard and all who have sung, there lies the mystery confined only by the limit of the dream’s journey. The child dreams of the betrothal, the youth grows out of their myth and the adult searches for earthly dreams. Yet there are still those who believe and sleep with their ears open…hoping and praying that the songs will come to them…as it did to me.
My beloved, your song saved my life and granted me a soul. Those many miles that we have both travelled were mere footsteps into each other’s arms. Our story is divine for my miracle is your reflection, my heaven is by your side and my prayers are fulfilled by our world. Our choices were never easy and not without sacrifice yet we both left our lives for love and both found a love for life. When our hands were first bound in that matrimonial display, our mantra was “Never a step behind.” This ceremony was blessed by an angel and then again by an ancient one and since we have not simply grown but evolved beyond the fairy tale and into life’s dreaming.
I hate the pain that now lies behind those once sparkling eyes and the tears that we both now shed. The burden that I place on you daily breaks my heart yet you smile and share every moment of pain as if it were merely the pause of a passing thought. I feel you listen to my breath as we sleep and pray for one more day of our combined moments. And though you laugh at my joy of some newly found wonder, the sadness that sometimes overwhelms us never depletes you. I find myself wanting to be like you and then I’m recalled to our wedding ring’s inscribed words, “You are another me,” and your strength resounds in me.
This morning as you slept, I watched two Lorikeets sing and break their fast in a nearby tree. They chirped their endearments to each other as they groomed each other and flitted from one spot to the next as if to sanctify their bond. Our union has outlasted many of their lives yet they seemed to remind me of our calling. The bond is forever and not for moments of despair that nature has now placed between us. Those words “until death” are synthetic and do not fracture what has been and what will still come to pass.
On the sixth of November we will renew our wedding vows on the beach and in bare feet as we had always planned. Our witnesses will bathe in our own moments of truth as we live and relive our love for as long as our time permits.
These moments I will carry with me wherever I’m yet to know, but I’m sure that a higher power will allow me to listen whenever your heart calls. I heard you once from the other side of this world; I see no barrier to hearing you from the next one.
Photography: Deep gratitude to Andrew Jarvie & Emily Clarke https://www.lifeportraits.photography
Images captured in Carmila, Qld, on July 24, 2017, just after initial diagnosis, before staging.
