Justin and I were waiting for my mom’s delayed plane to arrive. We somehow ended up at a Starbucks at the Mall of America. We’d never been there before or since, but in the hour we were waiting we wrote our marriage vows. After 15 years they continue to be the compass that guides our relationship. Here they are.
I promise to share with you my honest and real self, to always tell the truth as I know and experience it.
I vow to listen to you, to understand more deeply what your heart loves and yearns for.
I promise to see you with new eyes each day as the person you are becoming, not as the person I want you to be.
Recognizing that our relationship is nourished by and nourishes the larger community of which we are a part, I vow to extend myself outward from our relationship to nurture greater justice and beauty in our community and the world.
Amidst the sorrow and suffering that life brings, I vow to make room for great joy. To be surprised by your beauty and mystery, and to laugh and play with wild abandon.
Knowing that to keep these promises, I must attend to and nurture my own body, mind, and spirit, I vow to seek balance in my own life so that I might come to you as a whole person.
Justin and Juliana-June 30, 2007
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