This is a photograph taken by a kind stranger in May of 2008. I had just returned to England from my home in America about a week earlier having … quit one job, said no thank you to an offer of another job from a law firm I had interviewed with for several months, rented my house out to strangers, sold off most of the lovely contents of my home and my car as well and packed myself off to the UK completely secure as I kissed my friends and family goodbye that I was on the right path for me.
Having only been to Cornwall once for two weeks when John and I met for the first a few months earlier, most of the people who loved me thought on some level that I had lost my mind. John and I had known each other only about four and a half months when this picture was taken. Looking back now if any of my friends had made so many major changes for love, I would have thought they were a bit nuts too. If you’ve followed our story for very long, then you know it has all worked out so well that it feels as if it was all just meant to be.
A few things have changed since the picture above was taken, we’ve been married for over a year, and since that first bike ride we’ve had change in attitude with regard to safety when cycling on the Camel Trail. Even though most of our bike riding is confined to car free, easy bike trails where one might feel safe enough as we did back then to ride without a helmet, today when we go out for a ride along the same path we’ll be wearing some protective headgear.
This shift in our cycling attire has a great deal to do with our recognition of how special what we have is and our desire to safeguard it right down to protecting our physical bodies from harm. The realization of just how fragile our lives really are can supercede quite a lot including the discomfort of a helmet when it comes to protecting life and love. In the pictures below, notice in the first one John’s headgear and in the second, my helmet hair after we stopped along the way to take a photograph on Helland Bridge, a place that will always be special to us both.
The Camel Trail
John & Elizabeth – Helland Bridge
Gifts Of The Journey 
How wise this choice is, Elizabeth!
you two are lovely.. Thanks for sharing.
May the Blessing Be!
It’s love…helmet hair and all. I totally delight in y’all’s dramatic, wonderous, and encouraging love story and enjoy each facet you share of its fateful beginnings. I understand this momentum of true love, because there I was at 30 having dated a handful of times and never having had a boyfriend, yet there was not a spot of doubt when I met my David….the incredible, “We just knew…it was meant to be” truth showed itself and two weeks after our first meeting we were engaged and 7 months later we were married and it has rung true ever since, praise the Lord. Now I am 3-, um, 37, and I am thankful each day for David, Anna, Sara, Sophia and the large edition of love from our increased family circle. Love On!
Lovely pics! Sometimes a lot of changes are necessary for true love…and in my experience they are worth it!
Elizabeth,
When I first saw my husband, in a bar, in Arkansas, I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with him. I don’t know how I knew this…but I did. I think your story is wonderful and romantic and it tells me that you both know who the hell you are. That is so nice, isn’t it?
I have been with Shayne now for 15 years. It’s better then ever…thanks for giving me a peek…what a great leap you both took!!
(I was bike riding with Shayne and forgot to clip out at a stop light and fell onto a car. I had a helmet on, thank God!)
Beautiful post & you are both glowing in these lovely photographs in such beautiful countryside. I miss feeling the wind rushing through my hair when I ride – it’s something I fondly remember from my childhood, but I do wear a helmet now.
Awwww, you and ‘Sean Connery’ have managed to combine romance with a bicycle safety PSA!
PS yours is a love story I’d like to duplicate!
Here’s to love, having fun together, and caring enough to take care of yourself for each other!