THREAD: The greatest thing happened yesterday! In a small ceremony in front of our families, @katieperalta and I were married. With the sun setting behind us, we promised to love one another forever, no matter what the future may hold.

This promise comes almost eight years after I married my first wife, Taylor, when we vowed to love each other, in sickness and in health. In November 2016, four years into our marriage, Taylor died after a courageous fight with ovarian cancer.

For a long time, I wondered about my capability to love again, to be able to invest myself so deeply in another person. It’s so much easier to only have oneself to worry about, I thought.

And then in comes Katie, this dynamic, thoughtful woman who’d keep laughing long after a joke was over. We fell in love, and despite my fears and hesitations, I embraced that familiar-but-unrelenting feeling.

Despite my experiences, I’m not an expert in love nor am I an expert in grief. But I can tell you the feeling I have this morning is otherworldly and a reminder that our presents and futures do not have to be dictated by the weight of the past. I’m a walking example of that.