Love is a Place
Love is a place,
Nothing to give
Nothing to get,
Love is a place of being,
And if I am in this place,
And you are in this place,
Now we can say,
I am in love with you.
- Robert Petteway & Cynthia
from Looking for Love
Let these be your desires:
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the
beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
-Kahlil Gibran
Adapted from The Prophet
The Apache Wedding Blessing is among the favorites of brides and grooms.
Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be a shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no loneliness for you,
for each of you will be a companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place to enter into your days together.
And may your days be good and long on the earth.
On the wedding day, we all stand in awe of the great promise that stretches before us as we celebrate the potential for great and lasting love. Seeing a bride and groom step up to the altar helps ignite the flame of love that lives within us all. We adore weddings because they bring us together in great happiness to celebrate two people. In the process, it awakens the love in our hearts and the great potential that lies within. Weddings help everyone focus on, and remember, love.
-- Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway
Love.
What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings.
How can love’s spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable?
Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots stretching deep into dark and mysterious days.
The heart is a living museum. In each of its galleries, no matter how narrow or dimly lit, preserved forever like wondrous diatoms, are our moments of loving and being loved.
- Diane Ackerman, The History of Love
Couples ask me to include this readining in their weddings all the time! Does anyone know the author of this wonderful reading?
The key to love is understanding ...
The ability to comprehend not only the spoken word,
but those unspoken gestures,
the little things that say so much by themselves.
The key to love is forgiveness ....
to accept each others faults and pardon mistakes,
without forgetting, but with remembering
what you learn from them.
The key to love is sharing ...
Facing your good fortunes as well as the bad, together;
both conquering problems, forever searching for ways
to intensify your happiness.
The key to love is giving ...
without thought of return,
but with the hope of just a simple smile,
and by giving in but never giving up.
The key to love is respect ...
realising that you are two separate people, with different ideas; that you don't belong to each other,
that you belong with each other, and share a mutual bond.
The key to love is inside us all ...
It takes time and patience to unlock all the ingredients
that will take you to its threshold;
it is the continual learning process that demands a lot of work ... but the rewards are more than worth the effort ...
and that is the key to love.
From Wedlok.com
“It takes years to marry completely two hearts …
even the most loving and well assorted.
A happy wedlock is a falling in love.
Young persons think love belongs to the brow-haired
and crimson cheeked.
So it does for its beginning.
But the golden marriage is part of love
which the bridal day knows nothing of...
Such a large and sweet fruit is marriage
that is needs a long summer to ripen,
and then a long winter to mellow and season it.”
-- Theodore Parker
Love.
What a small word we use for an idea so immense and powerful it has altered the flow of history, calmed monsters, kindled works of art, cheered the forlorn, turned tough guys to mush, consoled the enslaved, driven strong women mad, glorified the humble, fueled national scandals, bankrupted robber barons, and made mincemeat of kings.
How can love’s spaciousness be conveyed in the narrow confines of one syllable?
Love is an ancient delirium, a desire older than civilization, with taproots stretching deep into dark and mysterious days.
The heart is a living museum. In each of its galleries, no matter how narrow or dimly lit, preserved forever like wondrous diatoms, are our moments of loving and being loved.
- Diane Ackerman, from A Natural History of Love
And you thought Elvis only did Vegas!
Blue Hawaii is one of the classic Elvis movies. In it he experiences a Hawaiian wedding, Elvis-style.
It is kind of romantic! I love the way bride and groom come from either side and meet one another in the middle. That's really how marriage should be!
He sings the "Hawaiian Wedding Song," with background singers, some chanting in the native language.
Don Ho was also widely known for crooning that number. Andy Williams is as well.
Interestingly, there is also a reading commonly referred to as the "Hawaiian Wedding Song."
I never noticed before that the reading is not the same as the lyrics to the song -- althought the sentiments are sort of similar. It is a classic as well but perhaps we should call it the Hawiian Wedding Poem? It goes like this:
Here all seeking is over, the lost has been found, a mate has been found to share the chills of winter-- ow love asks that you be united. Here is a place to rest, a place to sleep, a place in heaven. Now two are becoming one, the black night is scattered, the eastern sky grows bright. At last the great day has come.
The Blue Hawaii Wedding package is, by the way, a staple of the Las Vegas Elvis wedding industry.
This is a lovely reading from the Christian tradition used in the ceremony of Jackie and Pete. It was offered by the bride's aunt as a sweet blessing on their marriage and to honor the family's faith. It was adapted from a prayer by Rev. Edward M. Hays, from his book Prayers for the Domestic Church.
Blessed are you, Lord, Our God,
Who crowns marriage with Love and Affection.
Lord of Love,
We thank you for the gift of married love.
In your wisdom and generosity you have blessed the union
of man and woman with deep beauty in the song of love.
A sacred unity arises when two hearts are fused as one
in the Love of the Eternal One.
We thank you, God, for this holy gift.
Creator of life, your loving union with your people
is symbolized in wedding feasts and intimate unions.
No other vocation in life have you, Lord, so richly blessed
by interlacing intimacy and affection in the sacred union of hearts and bodies.
As we share in the joy and wonder of marriage
so also must we share its burdens.
But moments of loving affection, so human and holy, lighten our trials
and nourish us day by day in our common journey.
May the happiness and union that we celebrate this day
bless us and sustain us all our lives.
Blessed are you, Lord Our God,
Who Crows Marriage With Love and Affection.
- Adapted from Prayers for the Domestic Church, by Rev. Edward M. Hays.
Another really popular wedding reading these days is "i carry your heart with me" by e.e. cummings, who had a penchant for writing in lower case letters and liberal use of parenthesis.
The reading was popularized when Cameron Diaz read it at her sisters wedding in the movie, "In Her Shoes."
It is lovely and romantic, but hard to read for the average person because it is difficult to decide where one thought ends and another begins. So, with apologies to e.e., I usually sort through the sentences and put them into easy to read groupings when a bride asks a friend or relarive to read this at her wedding.
Here's what we did for Michael and Jessica's wedding last weekend. The groom's twin sisters shared the reading, alternating back and forth. The effect was terrific!
Introduction: Now the groom’s sisters Angelina and Stephanie read I Carry Your Heart With Me, by e.e. cummings.
Angelina: i carry your heart with me
(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it
Stephanie: (anywhere i go you go,my dear;
and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
Angelina: i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)
i want no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
Stephanie: and it's you who are whatever a moon has always meant.
And whatever a sun will always sing is you.
Angelina: here is the deepest secret nobody knows
Stephanie: (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
Angelina: and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
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