True Love

Weekly wisdom to level up your creative life in 3 minutes, for free.

A SHORT STORY

This weekend I had the opportunity to stand with my dear friend and brother, Greg Kamp, as he got married to the love of his life Kate Rose Bailey.

I have been friends with Greg for the past ten years. Together, we have climbed mountains both externally and internally, the former in Tanzania and Egypt.

Many of these experiences have felt like small rituals and rites of passages for the both of us.

For instance, Greg shared in his vows a particular story of the moment he knew he wanted to marry Kate, which happened while we were in Egypt.

We had ventured into the Sinai mountains with our dear friend, Ahmed, a Bedouin whose family had lived in that region for centuries.

Ahmed was nervous because he had recently asked his Uncle to request permission to marry another girl in the old Bedouin tradition, and he was waiting for her answer.

I responded how this predicament reminded me of one of my favorite poems by David Whyte called The Truelove.

There on the side of that mountain, I shared its wisdom to Greg and Ahmed:

“There is a faith in loving fiercely

the one who is rightfully yours,

especially if you have

waited years and especially

if part of you never believed

you could deserve this

loved and beckoning hand

held out to you this way.

I am thinking of faith now

and the testaments of loneliness

and what we feel we are

worthy of in this world.

Years ago in the Hebrides,

I remember an old man

who walked every morning

on the grey stones

to the shore of baying seals,

who would press his hat

to his chest in the blustering

salt wind and say his prayer

to the turbulent Jesus

hidden in the water,

and I think of the story

of the storm and everyone

waking and seeing

the distant

yet familiar figure

far across the water

calling to them

and how we are all

preparing for that

abrupt waking,

and that calling,

and that moment

we have to say yes,

except it will

not come so grandly

so Biblically

but more subtly

and intimately in the face

of the one you know

you have to love

so that when

we finally step out of the boat

toward them, we find

everything holds

us, and everything confirms

our courage, and if you wanted

to drown you could,

but you don’t

because finally

after all this struggle

and all these years

you simply don’t want to

any more

you’ve simply had enough

of drowning

and you want to live and you

want to love and you will

walk across any territory

and any darkness

however fluid and however

dangerous to take the

one hand you know

belongs in yours.”

I think there is something powerful about having the courage to finally say “yes” to life, to your true love, whatever that may be.

A true love not only in the sense of a lover, but also the marriage with our work. And the inner vow we make to our own selves along the way.

The ability to step out of the boat, and trust that the next step towards that love will hold you.

What a privilege it was, through Greg’s wedding to witness not only his growth, but the act of both him and Kate saying “yes” to their true love.

What is your true love? What is something in your life you feel the courage or the calling to say yes to?

A CREATIVE TOOL

AI is an incredible tool to help make your writing more efficient, but what about writing in your unique style? Well, ChatGPT can do that, too!

Check out this article that details three strategies on how you can train ChatGPT to write in your voice. The results are mind blowing!

A PIECE OF ART

The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.

---Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)

Grateful,

Michael