I have traveled the world, I’ve met thousands of people across hundreds of cultures. Yet there is only one that has ever truly changed my life. One so amazing and breathtaking that God Himself placed her in my path.
I always enjoyed writing. I first started when I was in the military. Though I had written papers in high school and younger, I never truly enjoyed it. I went through some hard times in the Army. I lost friends and loved ones and in a time when I saw very little hope, I picked up a notebook and a pencil and started putting words on paper. It was a distraction at first. Then it grew into something bigger. Yet I never felt like it would amount to anything. It was simply a diversion from the pain and sorrow.
Years later I would find myself in the desert chasing rodeo titles. It had been a trialing process. I came home from a Middle Eastern deployment a few months before the season started and after serving my nation in that fashion I needed a break. So, what does any red‑blooded American do for fun or to let off steam? Well, I found myself sitting on the back of a horse spurring him to go as fast as possible while holding .45 Colt revolvers and shooting at targets. Brings a tear to my eye just to think about how American that sport is.
However, anyone who has spent time on the rodeo, especially stretching a whole year chasing rodeos, can tell you that the nightlife and the crowds are one of the few moments where you get to feel a rush, feel peace, clarity, and even happiness. It’s all the days between those nights that people don’t write stories about. Except for me, because it was one of these days filled with turmoil and pain that God gave me the greatest gift of my life.
In the deserts of Arizona, I would find myself at a week‑long rodeo. My first major. The road leading here was not easy. From illness and injury to breakdowns and fires. I was left with a busted rig, sleeping on the floor in puddles of water from Arizona monsoons and a leaking roof. My power fried from a short in the inverter catching the inside of my rig on fire. Needless to say I was not a happy camper (literally). From broken saddles, a burnt home, and a bruised ego, I was on my last leg, wanting to quit it all and head home.
Then one night just before Valentine’s Day my neighbor in a very nice bus motorhome approached me and kindly talked to me about my very loud generator. I would proceed to apologize and inform him of my situation. I told him I would keep it off at night and just use it for an hour during the day so I could do my college microbiology papers for school.
But this compassionate man wasn’t having it. Instead of complaining or getting mad he proceeded for the next two hours to help me set up a way to stretch power from an outlet. This way I wouldn’t have to dry camp and he and his wife could sleep peacefully. I can tell you right now that was a blessing I did not deserve, and still yet God had even more for me to witness.
Around the corner came the man’s daughter. And even though it was late at night I swear I could see a glow around this woman, like an angel sent straight from Heaven to deliver me from my tribulations. So kind and beautiful, with a smile that could outshine the sun. I never believed in love at first sight till I saw this woman. Thousands of miles and thousands of faces never amounted to what I was bearing witness to in this moment.
We would end up talking for 3 hours that night. Total strangers that felt like they had known each other their whole lives. She would actually be the one to ask me out first, something that had never happened to me before. A simple hangout with her friend and our little brothers playing golf and bowling, every moment that passed I became more and more infatuated with this woman.
Our first true date was on Valentine’s Day. We played Uno with her family. I knew then and there that no matter what, this woman would hold my heart for the rest of my life.
She’s the reason I started writing again. At first they were short stories in text messages to impress her. Then it developed into a passion. I wanted to write for her. I wanted to find any and every word possible to show her how much I cared for her. However, at the end of the day they were just sweet nothings in the light have how deeply I truly felt for her. There just wasn’t enough words in the English langue for me to disclose the love I had for her. Words of romance and affection between two people was barely enough to cover the deep emotions between us.
After one of theses stories she told me I should start writing for others again. That my words would make her tier up and feel joy, love and other emotions she had never felt before.
(A sample from my upcoming Faiths Ancient Journey novel. where I wrote her into the story as a dormant main character, the driving force behind Adam)
{“In a moment of calm I turned to Him and said, ‘Yahweh, my Father… might I have now what You have planned for me to obtain?’”
“He understood. Even paradise is incomplete when you have no one to share it with.
That evening He laid me to rest beneath Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life; the same place He molded me from clay. When I awoke, I felt diminished, as though half my stature had been taken in the night. My ribs ached, and there was a strange absence in me; as if I were missing legs, fingers, toes, even ears, as though a whole other self had been peeled away. My balance was wrong. I felt as if I had been two, and now was one.
And then I saw her. God had taken a side of me, and there she stood; my better half. I felt unfinished, broken, dismayed… until she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around my waist. In that moment I was whole again. So long as I had her, I would remain whole.”}
She believed in me even when I did not. She would read my sermons and stories and always say the kindest words of inspiration. She renewed my spirit.
There was one rodeo I was at in the corn fields of Iowa, where the kids at the shoot hid stuffed animals for the adults to find as they went through the fields getting from arena to arena. I would end up finding a pink bunny hidden behind some corn stalks. It was one of her favorite colors, so I picked it up and planned to give it to her as a present. I sent her a picture of it, and she told me to tie him to my saddle as a way for her to be there with me even when she could not go. I would end up winning my entire division at that rodeo because I had her with my as my little tail gunner bunny.
Even her very spirit would inspire me to succeed.
Nevertheless, sometimes life gets hard, she and I were separated by time, distance, and a living situation that became too much to bear. I would never stop loving her and a part of me knows that she feels the same. I hope God brings our paths back to each other someday.
But during our breakup I would end up writing a full‑length novel for her. It was over our love story and what we meant to each other. It was the first book I had ever completed. Inspired by deep unwavering emotion. I would even proceed to print it out into a small handmade book. And when I handed it to her she gave me the biggest smile, and she hugged me before saying “Turtle power” (which was our weird way of saying I love you).
Her story’s and her life are not easy ones and I pray for her each and every day. She is still the only one for me. The only one that I would give up anything and everything for. She is my inspiration. She is why I started writing and preaching again. She is the reason why I became a published author before the age of 30.
All of this is for her, inspired by her and pushed forward by God. My ministry and my literature are all in thanks to the woman who changed my life for the better.
Thank you, my Valentine.