So here's how it happened...

This love story begins in November of 1999. Sam was just out of college, and working as an event musician in the Episcopal Church. At a gig for the Diocese of W. Tennessee, he happened upon a Mary Beth Seltzer. After talking with Mary Beth, she suggested that Sam meet here daughter, Erin, who was attending Guilford College in Greensboro, NC where Sam was living. Sam thought little of this proposition, since he would be leaving Greensboro for Asheville at the beginning of the year. Back in Jackson, Mary Beth told Erin about Sam, and gave her his CD. After listening to the first track, she thought she wanted to meet him. A few emails were exchanged, and a meeting was arranged at Tate Street Coffee. Unfortunately, Sam fell ill with the flu, and attempted to call Tate St. to relay the message. The meeting never took place, but that week, Erin was the only person to call and ask how he was doing(major turning point). On January 18, 2000, snowy and cold, a first dinner date was arranged. After dinner, disaster struck. They went to a park, where they took turns giving piggy-back rides, and unknown to them, Sam’s keys fell out of his pocket into the snow. Then Erin’s need for a bathroom lead them to a friends’ house, who surely was confused by the whole ordeal. When they returned to the car, key location unknown, they went back to the friends’ house for lighting apparatus. Fortunately, the keys were found, and evening ended with a hug and promise of another date.

That night sparked a relationship that would endure falling apart and overheating cars, family struggles, failed recipes, searches for identity, prank calls, and even a brief separation. But these tests have proven to strengthen the bonds for relationship. For love is a state of relationship, which includes the whole spectrum of emotions, from anger to compassion, from fear to confidence. It is naive to expect a relationship to be “perfect”, but it is faith and commitment which make the journey possible. This realization brings with it a better understanding of life itself, and what it means to truly love. May we all in our own lives remember that nothing and no one is perfect, but we are still loved by God, and let us try, in our imperfectness, to love each other.