The Wedding

I love witnessing weddings like this one. Both parties were pure, beautiful and so in love. She looked at him with a glow that could have lit a stadium. He looked back at her with such deep, slow love I felt I was intruding by witnessing the moment. They have no idea what is ahead of them (I sometimes feel that is best, we might run if we knew what awaited us). . . They simply face the future, hand in hand, together.

The mom is so beautiful, so graceful. I am so proud she is my aunt. She watches this milestone with mixed emotions. So proud, so happy, yet the moment is bittersweet as this boy who has been her gentle companion for over 20 years moves on to another love, another life. Never again can my uncle Wynn fool me. He likes me. I know it. I saw his emotions for the first time ever and I now know what I've always suspected. He is a deep thinker and an emotional man who hides it behind his jokes and teasing. I am so pleased to have seen his soul for a moment.


"Do you remember when we got married?" I ask my sweetheart? Do you remember how we looked at one another, how we felt, how we loved?

"I remember" he answers. "Yes I loved you a lot that day, but I love you more today, over eighteen years later. It's deeper - more complex. True, our romance isn't what it once was. Kids take a lot of our time. But I adore you."

I am reminded of this couple here, who show everyone in a very physical way, their excitement and feeling of celebration in their union. I want to tell both couples . . . "Just keep that celebration going. Celebrate that you have a companion to face whatever with. Celebrate that they are different from you. Celebrate their willingness to clean up your throw-up, to hold you when you cry, and to put up with your funny family things. Celebrate the toilet seat up, the shoes left all over the house, the whiskers in the sink, and the toothpaste spats. They are visible signs that your partner is THERE. Just keep on dancing. Even after the kids go to bed, keep dancing and you'll do just fine.