Eleven years ago today, my Beloved Emily and I went on our very first date.
We had met a few days earlier at a concert I was playing in Toronto, that she happened to be attending because a friend of hers wanted to see Trevor Hall, who I was opening for.
I had been living in LA for a couple of years and without knowing quite why, I felt a strong pull to make my way back to Toronto for the summer.
She had just moved to the city from a small town.
When I knew I was going to be in Toronto and saw the concert listing, I thought I’d like to go check it out and had intended to buy tickets. Not long after that, I received an email from my manager passing along an invitation from the local promoter, asking if I’d like to open the show.
That night, just moments before we met, I was chatting with an old friend who was asking about my love life and I said to him, “I feel like I’m going to meet my person any minute now… like she’s right around the corner.”
Shortly after, a group of friendly people came to say hello and share some kind words about my set. I’ll never forget what Em said to me in that first exchange. She shared that listening to my songs gave her the feeling of enjoying a warm cup of hot chocolate.
I’d never heard anything like that before, and it got me blushing. The rest of our exchange was innocent and a little awkward, and neither of us thought much of it at the time.
Neither of us quite thought of our first time getting together as a date going into it. We had connected a bit on Facebook after the show and Em being new in town and me just being back from LA, we decided to meet up to continue the conversation in person.
That day, when we met up, she arrived with a box of my favourite chocolate chip cookies saying she’d just seen them on her way to meet me and thought I might like them. There was also a cookie already missing from the box.
A woman after my heart! And the rest, as they say, is history…
This was our very first photo together, taken at the end of our first date. We ended up spending the entire afternoon together, deep in conversation and adventuring around Toronto into the evening. Little did we know, we were about to embark on the alchemical journey of a lifetime…
The Alchemy Of Our Togetherness
Reflecting on our journey together, I can say without a doubt that we have been truly blessed with the deepest, most potent love.
The kind that shines a light on anything that is not love. The kind that demands and deserves the highest level of purification, alignment and devotion.
Our closest friends, soul fam and family know that our journey together has been one of deep initiation and hasn’t always been easy.
In our eleven years together, we have walked through fire together and have truly been each other’s greatest mirror and teacher.
We have had to meet ourselves fully and take full ownership of our shadows, our wounds and our defenses.
There have been moments where we thought we might not be able to continue on because our togetherness has been such a potent alchemical force, leaving no aspect of our being unexamined. And no stone on the path of our highest becoming unturned.
And yet somehow, through it all, our blessed, sacred love has always carried us through.
Our eternal soul connection has held us and kept us close even when our human selves wanted to give up, retreat and run away.
We have died our share of ego deaths together and shed many old skins. We have had to let go, time and time again, of outdated and expired versions of ourselves and unsustainable expressions of our relationship.
And each time, our love renewed, our hearts expanded and our bond deepened, we have found our way forward together, closer, ever more committed and in true love than before.
I am thankful beyond words to get to live such a love like this, to walk side by side with my one and only, and to receive the immeasurable gifts our Union has continued to bestow on us.
I am thankful that we have fought for our Love and never given up, and that we get to enjoy the fruits of that perseverance together in this season of our lives.
Happy First Date Anniversary, my Love. 🌹
The video of our First Dance was from our wedding weekend in October, 2022 after an intimate forest ceremony with our closest friends. The ceremony included a traditional handfasting ritual in honour of Em’s Scottish roots. We were officially married in the small chapel of SMSV Coptic Orthodox Church in Toronto two days later, in the presence of our immediate families.
