Cool wind blows the red dirt up in a swarm as we walk through it to the start of the trail. Another beautiful Sunday, another beautiful engagement session with new friends. We eagerly start the hike in search of two things, the sun and the perfect location to watch it set. I get to explore this created world with once strangers and now two new friends for my job. We laugh as I get to know their relationship and stopping every so often to snap a couple photos in the surprisingly green and lush brush of the desert. They met in San Diego over pizza. “It’s always pizza isn’t it?”, they joked as Coreen gives Nigel a kiss on the cheek. We walk and walk and walk through the painted desert afar while the wind sweeps through the canyon and along the trees as if you could actually see the path it was taking. We were in its line of fire. They hold tight to each other at the top of a look out, while the wind almost knocks all of us off our feet.
Love is kind like wild wind if you think about it. All of a sudden life as you know is taken up in arms, without warning. Love whips you around with a mixture of shock, laughter, and numbness. Sometimes it’s only in the wake of love do you realize the intensity of it all. But for me, I get to be caught up in hundreds of wind storms. For only a minute I step in a tunnel and photograph the wild love two people experience normally in the secret of their heart.
We get there to the end. Where the sun is kissing the golden red rocks and we cannot help but climb down to be kissed as well. They lay out a blanket, pour some wine into mason jars, and cheers to the next season of their life together. A simple, pure moment shared between two and also a bystander getting to be caught up in it. He tells me his favorite thing about her is how smart she is while he pushes her wind blown hair out of her face. She smiles at him with eyes full of being known. She tells me her favorite thing about him is how positive he makes every situation. They finish their glasses full of white Italian wine as the sun sets below the horizon and we all wish silently for another hike like this one. The forest is full of the sounds of wind whipping it’s way in and out of the majestic rocks and we make our way back in the dark, thanking the earth for it’s beauty and whirlwind.
