Sweet Baby Jay and I were friends for a while before we started dating. He would come to my yoga classes a lot. I’d run into him out and about town. We always had really good conversations about really far out shit: energy, aliens, generational healing.
One day after class we decided to get a beer together. After talking for a while, it came up that I was pretty upset with my partner and feeling really under appreciated in the relationship I was in at the time. John had to run off and take care of something, but when he got up to go, he put his sunglasses on, flashed me a big smile and said, “Call me when you’re ready for a real man.”
I nearly spit beer all over the table. I just laughed and rolled my eyes, like whatever, dude… I’m six years older than him!! And I had been explicitly warmed that he had no follow through. He lifted his sunglasses up for a second, looked me dead in the eye and said, “I’ve been listening to you complain for a really long time now, I think I know what you want.” That left me speechless for the first time in my life…
The next time he came over, it was to cook diner for my daughter and I. And I realized that he did in fact have an idea of what I would like. I decided to give it a shot. After our first kiss, he let me know that he actually had no intention of dating me. And I let him know, that that was too bad because as far as I was concerned, we were already together. The rest is history. We’ve been bickering ever since.
Our relationship is not perfect. We’re both stubborn and explosive at the same time. Mistakes, huge mistakes, have been made on both sides. But I’ve never met a person so willing to step up, to receive feedback (after first flipping out) and (slowly with your Kapha ass) work to create change. Shit, we built a house together this year. Happy Anniversary, John Baleine! Cheers to many more projects, houses, and fist fights! Just Kiddin….
Mariposa Yoga 