There’s a draft that sits on my desktop, dated March 16. Last Friday, for anyone that’s noticing, there was no post on the Archives.

A rare occasion – I came to the page, took the time to write, but could not complete the piece.

The theme?

My first sentence began, “I think I’m being overtaken,” as I went on to list the three “biggies” in life of which I have had strong opinions.

Marriage, pets and babies.

Babies, well, Jeb sort of fulfilled all maternal longings in me. I’m thirty-eight and finally getting free. Diapers and toddling are in my distant past.

Pets are simple. It makes no sense to get a dog when you’re renting month-to-month with dreams of traveling the world.

And marriage. I’ve spent a lifetime puzzling over the it. Living through my parents’ divorce(s) and experiencing major separations of my own. My heart has forever held a sweet space for a love that was so enduring, but my mind has wondered how the heck a person can promise a constant love when the only certainty is change.

So befuddled by the marriage concept, my brain so tied in knots, I could not articulate myself enough to finish that March 16 piece. And so the Archives remained vacant last Friday.

That afternoon, the Bohemian and I found ourselves finished with work, alone together, and the sun was shining. It’d been at least a month since we’d been to the beach. So we threw two sarongs, two oranges and a beer in a bag with a camera and headed down to our favorite spot – the place where we met.

The rest of the day is a collage of signs and symbols. There was that naked man standing under the waterfall springs. He was overflowing with giddiness, yipping and howling at the pure beauty of being free and alive.

A shard of pottery with a blue feather. A circle made of 11 stones and bamboo stalks. A piece of rose quartz embedded at its center. An avocado seed, two halves. Albatross soaring over our heads. The soft warmth inside that circle where we lay our blanket down.

Things happen. Sometimes good things. The Bohemian tells it that he saw light. All around us, all around me. And in a soulful moment of divine inspiration I was hearing my full name come from his mouth in question.

Jessica Lynn Dofflemyer. Will you marry me?

No answer would come from my head. I dove deep into the depths of heart and soul. And what I found there were no more questions. No doubt. Only an overflowing fountain of love that reverberated through my being and enveloped me in joy.

I would get to live and love with this man for the rest of my days.

Simply put, this made me feel ecstatically happy.

And so we both said yes to Love that day. Got naked ourselves and got tossed in the winter tide of the ocean. Dried off and watched the sunset. Marveled in the very spot where we had met six months before. Said ‘thank you’ many times.

The Bohemian took those two halves of avocado seed. Brought them back together and buried them in the circle’s center, right next to the rose quartz.

Marriage, pets and babies. There’s decent logic for all of these three.

Baby? Well, it’s doubtful.

Oh, I’m sure we’ll eventually get a dog.

And marriage? Looks like there will be a barefoot Bohemian wedding in the Fall.

Sometimes, good things just happen.