The island

I used to have this fantasy of discovering an uncharted island and colonizing it with all the people I knew and loved. Mostly, I saw this fantasy as the only viable solution to unify my otherwise geographically-segregated tribe. I was tired of always being far away from someone I cared about, feeling guilty for not seeing them more often. I was exhausted by the emotional strain of having bits of my heart stretched across the globe. Like an overextended rubber band, I thought I would snap.

There was one afternoon in 2015, as I was sitting in the library at the University Center in Svalbard, that I came to a realization of sorts. I had just said goodbye to a number of friends, my fellow Arctic researchers, and I realized that if all my people were gathered on a single island, I would never get to meet anyone else. I would never get to see new parts of the world. I would be stuck on my island with my tribe, which may be wonderful at first, but we would eventually suffer for our isolation. We would be stuck. Instead, I wanted to grow. I decided that rather than gather my people and hold them in one place, it was better to embrace the times, however fleeting, when I did see them. We would gather and depart, each returning to our lives, but we would exist together for brief and wonderful moments. I realized the island I had dreamed of was called Earth.

Friends, this week, I had a beautiful moment together with friends and family. About 20 of my closest tribe members gathered to spend time with Carl and me as we joined our lives together. This week, our island was Oahu.

We had known for a while that we wanted a destination wedding. We felt no need to take on the elaborate rituals and exorbitant expenses that accompany American weddings these days, because what we really wanted was time with our people. We invited them to join us in Honolulu, and friends, it was wonderful. We visited Pearl Harbor, hiked Diamond Head, visited the famous North Shore, and went snorkeling. I neglected to take even a single photo during the four and a half days we spent together because I was too busy absorbing the experience. Friends, my heart is full.