How I Married a Badass Visionary Sadhu Warrior Poet

I feel truly fortunate to have sat beside this beautiful man through seventeen birthdays amid these tangled modern days, where fewer good men seem to step up with real heart. He feels part shaman, part visionary poet, a wizard with words, lover of beasts and soil, tender caretaker, nourishing cook, warrior king recluse, sadhu perched back in the Appalachian mountains.

Folks don't spot Chandler daily. He does his work without the need for constant oversocialization or distraction. He simply gets shit done. Sharing breath with him stretches my heart wider than I can grasp. How does one soul cradle endless realms, bear heavy loads of a world that is distraught, yet even with the weight of it all find the joy? If you've met him, you know he slices straight through nonsensical bullshit. He spots misalignment sharp as glass.

Raised fatherless and lacked the presence of a healthy masculine father figure, in a world starved of steady men, I'm endlessly thankful my children have him as a father: present, willing to go in the direction of their interests, he's there through the hardest moments and for the celebrations. He shows up for his friends, folks next door, even randos when they are in need. I witnessed him guide his parents, now passed, through their end with unwavering grace. Up the country road lives my mom; he's help to mend our old wounds and he tends her too.

Birthdays? He's low-key, hates fuss, but yesterday we simly enjoyed the day. Mom's tire blew; the roadside wait turned sweet when he rolled up and swapped it quick. Thanks poured out, he grinned: nothing is more meaningful then fixing that for you on my birthday, that's why I'm around.

Chandler broght me into motherhood, held me through shifts or all the eras, supported my healing my bloom. Honored to sit by his side or kneel at his feet, gazing upwards.

"The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love." — William Wordsworth

And one more that captures the quiet power of those everyday deeds that keep everything grounded and good: “I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien (as spoken by Gandalf in The Hobbit film)