2023: One of Twelve
“Let’s live, Hannah! Where do you want to go? Anywhere in the world.” Mikael said.
Wow! And, of course, I went! Here I am in the village of Vilaflor on the Spanish island of Tenerife, running the steep village roads and the surrounding volcanic mountains with Mikael, the mysterious man who’s coming up a lot these days.
After only three months of online courtship, and meeting for a few days in Canada, Mikael scrambled together a dream trip in the perfect villa in the foothills of Teide Volcano where we hiked, beached, and lived fully. Our time lacked for nothing in terms of true relationship building. It was the return to his dad life in Sweden with his daughters that really ushered in a new level of connection, and revealed a dynamic of ease, fun, and remarkable love that is worth continuing despite the “elephant in the room,” as he says. We have two different, entangled lives on two continents.
Missing no irony, my husband’s name is also Michael. He is the loving and devoted father of my children, and the man who has adventured with me across the world for 16 years. The man who I’ll continue to raise our children with in some new fangled family assortment. While I stood taking this picture Michael and the kids were likely fast asleep on the other side of the ocean, in our home in Vermont.
Michael knew and knows about Mikael. All of this has been a big undertaking of transparent, radical honesty. And the result has been the reckoning of our relationship and marriage, which has had challenges for years. The conclusion so far is that we need a new arrangement, but one that still maintains our dreams and my life’s vocation of “worldschooling” the kids.
And what is worldschooling anyways? I will explore that over the next decade or more on camera. My surprise 2023 re-invention includes the obvious next unfolding, a personal documentary.
I feel loved and supported by these two Michaels, so…
Why does it feel so hard?
Because it is hard.
2023 is poised to be a remarkably unknown and vastly important year, and as such I’m going to take a portrait every month.
That was January.
Gofeetgo 