Friday, July 22, 2005

Wedding Rehearsal

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was asked to perform a wedding ceremony for the daughter of my former co-worker. We had the rehearsal today at Belle Victorian Gardens in Deer Park, Washington.

The groom will drive up in a classic car, accompanied by six groom's men and six bridesmaids, riding in three other classic cars. As the wedding party enters, a rather unorthodox wedding song will be playing: "Bad to the bone." Even as we did the rehearsal today, I couldn't help but smile and want to dance. I would not have chosen that music, but it fits the personality of the couple.

And yet the couple plans to shift gears in the middle of the ceremony, adding a touch of tradition and Native spirituality. They've asked me to do a Native blessing, and at the end, they plan to release doves.

Interestingly, the couple selected words from one of my favorite writers, Kahlil Gibran, to be read during the ceremony:

You were born to be together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in your silent memory.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heaven dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bondage of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not of the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you be alone;
Even as the strings of a lute are alone, though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping,
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together,
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in shadow.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks to another day of loving.
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy.
To return home eventide with gratitude, and then sleep with a prayer
For the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

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