Fast forward a year and we were still avoiding the traditional path. We planned a wedding, although neither of us had ever proposed to the other, and exactly two weeks before our wedding day, those two incredibly pink lines popped up on the pregnancy test confirming that our duo was about to become a trio.

A decade and two premature babies later, we were living the American dream...sort of. We happily resided in Kansas City, MO in a beautiful little neighborhood that feels half rural and half suburban. Jordan was working a traditional 9-5 while I homeschooled our stubborn and too-smart-for-their-own-good little gremlins while designing websites and self-publishing books. We were as close to the normal “traditional” life as we were ever going to get.

But on our 7th Wedding Anniversary, we didn’t get to spend the evening celebrating as we had planned. Instead, we were in the ER waiting to find out if Jordan was having a heart attack. He wasn’t, but for any of you who have had high blood pressure combined with a panic attack, I’m sure you understand why we, and the doctors, were concerned.

After months of doctor’s appointments, trying medications and meditations, and just general brainstorming and heartfelt discussions, we realized just how far we had strayed from our original and nontraditional path. So we determined to back away from the traditional and venture into the underbrush of the unknown.

As we searched for ways to help Jordan relax, I tried to help by providing terrariums, puzzle cubes, meditations, and a zen garden for his office. And while his coworkers made fun of his “trinkets” at first, soon no one was able to resist raking the sand in his zen garden or playing with his betta fish, Jim or fiddling around with his air plant terrarium. And, as Jordan often does with new hobbies, he dove into the rabbit hole of zen gardens and the state of tranquility to find out what was so appealing about these products.