Aspen and I met in late January of 1985. We were engaged by the middle of March and married by late June. We have never looked back, have always loved one another and have never thought of ending our marriage.

With half of all marriages in the United States ending in divorce, we have decided to share our love story and how and why it has lasted for more than 26 years. So, if you are at all interested in a serious relationship with another person, especially if you want to have children some day, it will certainly be worth your while to read about how we have done it.
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The other day, while Aspen and I were out walking, we came upon a man we knew. He saw us and blurted out, “You’re holding hands.” Yes, we were. We do so whenever we can. We snuggle together every night too, and we make wonderful love. We’re still loving, after all these years. It has always come natural to us.

How did this happen, when it is so rare in the world? Well, when we met that fateful January, we were medicine folks. Every Friday night, we did Ecstasy and acid, first the Ecstasy and then several hours later high dose acid. We did this every Friday night for several months. Doing so, we opened up to each other completely. We came to know each other more deeply in that short time than most couples do in a lifetime of marriage.

The night we decided to get married, we were doing medicines. I asked Aspen if she wanted all of me. She said yes, and she has had all of me, all of my love and support and understanding ever since.
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After our courtship and our marriage, we began to spend more and more time backpacking and traveling. We did some climbing with a friend here in Boulder and in Joshua Tree. We went to more than one Rainbow Gathering too. We lived outside the law, and we were honest. We started in Boulder, of course, but we also lived briefly in California, in Mammoth Lakes, and in Arizona, in and around Tucson. We lived on the West Slope of the Rockies too, in Paonia, on an organic fruit farm.

When we were still living in Tucson, before we moved to Paonia, we wondered what else we could do with our love. We had been married for over 14 years. We had done almost everything we had wanted to do. What else could we do? The decision seemed to be made for us. Aspen was in her mid-thirties and was beginning to realize that she would have to have children soon if she wanted to be a mother.
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Although I had thought that I was done raising children, I was more than okay with us being parents together. I knew she would be a great mom. And I have always enjoyed being a dad. Being parents together would be our new life adventure. I certainly enjoyed actualizing her desire for children, and soon the babies began to come.

When they started coming, with Callahan being the first, we moved back to Boulder, and we now live just two blocks from where we started out 26 years ago, back when we first realized that we loved each other and wanted to share a life together. Since then we have come full circle in our life and our love. And now our love is actually stronger now than it was when we left Boulder all those years ago – way more than enough to nourish our three young boys.

The boys are 5, 8, and 11 years old now. They are more than a handful. They are all high maintenance, extremely loud, and overwhelming argumentative. They are also heartwarmingly loving and extremely interesting. It’s awesome watching them grow up and become people. They are my sons. God! What an obligation! What a responsibility! I love it.

The ancient Chinese called it the Tao. The Navajo and the Pueblos called it the Road of Life. The `60’s acid hippies called it the flow. It’s the road that all sentient life must travel upon from birth to death. It is the Way.

“The Road of Life then is the process of evolution. But for all its biological truth, it is still symbolic. For it still lies ahead of us. And as Du Nouy affirms, we must travel it on a psychological plane into yet another world.” (From Frank Waters, Masked Gods, page 178 in the paperback version.)

The Road of Life flows on and on. It never ends, and it flows always into the future. A few folks walk ahead, at the Leading Edge. They walk ahead with courage and with consciousness. They are the scouts, those who lead the rest of mankind ever onward. Perhaps they are the bravest. Perhaps they are merely those who have always wanted to be the first to see around the next bend.

They are the Edgewalkers. Always in the forefront, they walk ahead, leading the way. They live at the Leading Edge of mankind’s advance into the future, at the Leading Edge of reality itself. They live at Edge City.

Edge City – Where the future lives in the present. Where the past is left behind. Where mankind is being reborn “into yet another world.”

Edge City – mysteriously pulling even those who are afraid and in denial, pulling even those ever onward. Even those who are hiding from themselves, staying well back from this always advancing Edge, even those are being pulled into the future.

Know this – the Edge moves always onward. There is no end to mankind’s journey. There is no final resting place for humanity, no final Edge to reality. The future will always unfold. Edgewalkers will always lead the Way.

Like all families, we all have our various ailments and disabilities. Because of this, I ask every day for healing for each and every member of my family – for Aspen, Zane, Jake, Callahan, and myself too.
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For Aspen, I ask every day that she have no more migraines, never again, and no more debilitating colds either.

Lately however, she has shown a marked improvement with her health, thanks in large part to our doctor. He has gotten her to focus more on the health and strength of her immune system. For one thing, she is finally taking all the vitamin and mineral supplements that she needs.
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For Zane, I ask every day that his peanut allergy go away. Thank God that it’s mild and causes him to throw up instead of not breathing. But still! I also ask that his lungs and his immune system keep growing stronger, as he grows older, so he’s no longer so vulnerable to asthma and chest colds. He’s already growing stronger. He only had one asthma attack this year and fewer colds too.

Next fall, we’re going to start him in gymnastics at CATS, here in Boulder. He’s pretty tough and very strong for a five year old. He may be the one to follow in Ariana’s footsteps. She was awesome. She competed and went on to the regionals. If you’ve ever seen and appreciated her dancing, know that she learned to dance while she was at the gym called CATS.
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For Jake, I ask every day for a miracle, for no more Duchene Muscular Dystrophy at all, along with no more of its side effects – especially his depression, and his school problems. I want his DMD to go into remission, a miracle that is possible. It just needs another cosmic particle to pass through his dystrophin gene and set things to rights this time.

Already, Jake is very low on the severity scale. Most boys with
DMD are already in wheelchairs by his age. He’s still running around, sometimes he just can’t sit still. We thought we’d have to move into a one-level house by now because of his DMD, but he still runs up and down the stairs like they weren’t there.
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For Callahan, I ask that he overcome his fear and insecurity that were born of his very heavy, very dangerous, and very scary birth. He was stuck part way through the birth canal for six or seven hours. We finally realized that the midwife was a flake and was bullshitting us. So we called for the ambulance that we had reserved and had it carry us to the hospital where he was finally born.

His fear manifests today mostly in his inability to go to sleep at night. He sometimes lies in bed for hours, with wiggly legs, a nervous energy symptom that probably comes from the incredible fear he came into this world with. He’s still quite insecure and says “I can’t” way too much for an eleven-year old boy. However, in spite of his fear, he’s an awesome boy, soon becoming a man.
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For me, I ask that I be more compassionate, with no more anger left in me at all. It just brings me and everyone around me down. I also pray for no more pain. My shoulders have been damaged by all the military presses I’ve done at the gym. Oh well! But the pain does make it more difficult for me to have a good night’s sleep.

I’d also like to remain as healthy as I am now for the rest of my hopefully long and prosperous life. I wasn’t sick at all this past winter. “Knock on wood.” Meditation really helps.