SKYDIVE

“So how’s married life?”

A lot of people have been asking that. I don’t blame them; I’d ask it too. I like it. It’s checking in that we’re enjoying it, that we’re doing okay, and that we are settling into a brand new life for both of us.

My friend Julian asked me by text. I replied and told him thoughtfully, that it’s like ‘doing a tandem skydive where neither of you is the instructor’.

It’s not a brilliant analogy. I was just trying to find something that’s kind of terrifying but also exhilarating, life-affirming, self-awakening, and figure-out-able… in mid-air. The best bit of that figure-out-able-ness of course, is that you get to do that figuring-out together.

Teebs reminded me that ‘you learn a lot about yourself too’ - which must certainly be true. Thank you, Teebs. I pictured myself on the plane, rumbling through the clouds on the way up to twenty thousand feet, parachute strapped, and knuckles white.

It’s funny how you can picture what it’s like to leap out of a plane; you can imagine it and hear it and see it in your mind’s eye. But until you’re above the clouds, waiting for free fall, I suppose you’ve got no idea what it’ll actually be, what it will feel like, or how it might change the way you look at your life.

So. Are we enjoying it? Yes. I’m loving it. I’m vulnerable and protected and loved, while also being trusted, being a protector, and pouring out love to someone else who is tied to me in mid-air.

Are we doing okay? Yes, I think so. We had a beautiful time in the birdsong of honeymoon. We’re back and we’re happy.

And are we settling into the new? That’ll take more time to answer, I think. Yes -  but the new-so-far is the art of getting used to the wind rushing by and reorienting the ground and the sky and the sun. We are giving this our best, and I think that’s all we have right now. There’s a contentment in it, knowing we have each other, and that God has both of us in his hands.

And when I wake up in the mornings and think about it, I shake my head in wonder and chuckle to myself. I leapt out of a plane. We jumped together, and now we’re on an unpredictable adventure through the blue sky and under the warm sun. It is beautiful up here.