We call this a love story.
This photo was taken by Melody Parker, my wife as she was driving herself to New Mexico to pick up her daughter. Not only is it a really cool shot, but there is a lot of significance to this image. Here's why....
We have been together for almost 11 years. Married for 6 of those. In 2017 she and I found ourselves very discontent with the way our lives were going. As a couple and as individuals. For that reason we were arguing a lot. The concept of trust was a bit of a grey area on both ends. I decided it would be better for both of us if we separated. I literally moved everything I own out of the apartment and into my parents's house within 12 hours of that argument. Life was about to get very interesting and very uncomfortable for a while. I knew this. She knew it. It was a very painful experience to say the least.
We stayed separated for 4 months. In that time both of us were doing a lot of soul searching. I lost 37lbs. She made new friends and a few enemies. I did the same, but the nagging feeling of making a huge potential mistake was looming over my head with intensity. I was losing sleep. I was feeling the affects of co-dependency. She was furious with me for leaving the way I did. I was furious with her for being so hard to approach with my feelings. To a lot of you reading this you may be thinking, "yup. Been there a time or two". Lord knows we've all broken up in our lives. But I'm telling you. This was seriously breaking my heart. I speak for myself because I don't know what her mind was doing throughout this time. She was distant. Blocking me. Ignoring me. But, I can say that she never did what a lot of pissed of people do and bash my character on social media. At least I don't think she did. Ha!
Oh yeah, back to why I am posting this.....
I spent days, weeks, months trying to convince her that I was wrong and that I wanted to fix our love. She spent equal time deflecting my attempts. Until one magical day a couple things happened. The stars aligned and the universe, well....Let's just say the universe was calling on the #Avengers for help to get itself back on track. LOL. See what I did there?
Anyway, 4 months has gone by at this point and I am assuming that my marriage is ending and it's time to divorce. I get a message from one of the guys in another YouTube channel known as #AdventureArchives. His message was to inform me that Melody and I were recently mentioned in an article about hiking and youtube in a national publication called #OutsideMagazine. I'm going to tell you right now that my mind exploded. My heart melted soon after. To think that something like that has happened and yet my beautiful wife and I are at odds and aren't together to enjoy that milestone of a moment in our lives. I was excited to hear it, but I was utterly devastated at the same time. Knowing this now I knew there was only one thing to do. I had to rub it in a little. Hehehe! I forwarded that message to her.
It's a Wednesday afternoon and I am on my way to pick up a friend that I am introducing as a special guest on an episode of #StateParkers, which despite her and I separating I decided to keep alive. Because, of course. It would be foolish to turn my dream off. Here's what's kinda wild, her name is ALSO Melody! How crazy is that? I knew this girl from elementary school, so it's not that weird to me, but to other folks they always drop their jaw when they hear this story. I'm on my way to pick her up and my phone dings. I glance at it and what I see is that picture of the rainbow. Melody sent that to me after months of ignoring and blocking me. At that very moment, I knew something was happening. Something amazing. When I sent here the link to the magazine article she just so happened to be driving alone along the same path to New Mexico that she and I had traversed before as we were filming our show. I'm guessing her heart strings got yanked on pretty hard with that. She tells me now that she looked out the window and saw that rainbow, so she pulled over and took the shot. So glad she did. Because, her next text to me was exactly this....."This is wrong. That should be US!" Referring to the article and the fact that I was about to film a show with someone else in her place with HER SAME FREAKING NAME! Wow. The nerve! LOL. When I saw that text I almost fainted. I knew in my heart that things were about to change for the better. I was certain that my wife was coming back to me. She also told me that she would be back in town later that evening. I asked if she wanted to meet at diner to talk. SHE SAID YES!
As the afternoon went on I completed the filming of a new episode with, Let's call her Melody #2. Throughout that entire 8 hour hike through Austin, TX my mind was completely spinning. My focus was on one thing and one thing only. My wife. I missed her so bad I couldn't stand it. It was consuming my thoughts so much that I even cut the video shoot short and as soon as I dropped Melody #2 off at her place I made a b-line strait to Jim's Diner in Oak Hill. My lovely wife pulled in at the same time. I will spare you the details of our conversation, but I'll tell you that we decided to work it out. We fell back in love with each other and to this very day we are inseparable. There is a lot more to this story, but it would take way to long to tell.
Below is a link to that video. Should be fun now that you know where my head was at.
The 2nd video I have attached is very important to us. Not only was #hurricaneHarvey happening at the time, but this was the very first episode of our show that we filmed together right after we reunited our love for each other. I will never forget that experience.
Melody Parker, I love you so much.
Thank you all for letting me tell this story. It's really a great one. Our marriage is great. We are in love. We support and coach each other through life every single day.
Oh and by the way. Not only do we have a copy of the magazine article we are mentioned in, but the guys that the article was about actually came to Texas and spent a day on the trails with us. We were fortunate to host them at our home for a night as they were on the SouthWest leg of one of their adventure episodes. Wonderful people. We all signed the magazine.
Check out Adventure Archives Below. Subscribe to them and support them on patreon.com/adventure
This is the episode of their show that we had the privilege to hike and film with them.
#fixit #love #marriage #divorce #adventure #arguments #beauty #life #texas #newmexico #rainbows #youtube #adventurearchives #stateparkers #lovestory #happiness
