Wedding

I'm thinking of a special wedding that happened eight years ago today and I've considered many possible good words for today--love, marriage, ritual, symbol, metaphor, anniversary...But I've decided to just settle on wedding. You're welcome to select among that fine list after you've read my story:

Happy Anniversary Dave and Erin!

Lots of good memories flood back as I recall that day--and the days and years that came before and that have come since. The family and friends had gathered at a renovated historic train station to send them on their journey. We spoke of the significance of that. There were lots of symbols and metaphors in this wedding ritual.

The happy couple exchanged special stones that were part of the foundation of their relationship being laid that day. And as the officiant, I had assured my mother, the nervous grandma, that all would be legal and appropriately sacred, despite her anxiety over what her famously unconventional grandson might invent for his wedding. The stones were only one thing she might have been nervous about.

The groom sang his vows to his bride, with professional back-up provided by his twin brother and the other groomsmen. We all serenaded the newly-weds with our amazing kazoo orchestra at dinner. Murphy, the dog, did not attend, but was given recognition in the toasts I think. (Did you know Grandma was worried about this, Dave?)

Dave and Erin's journey has taken them to Iqaluit where Henry was born and then to the east coast where we welcomed Jane and Alice.

In honour of this special family I give you the Benediction spoken by their auntie at their wedding:

And now, may you rest in each other’s love;
may you grow in each other’s care;
may you enjoy each other’s challenges
and share each other’s adventures.
May those things you undertake together bring great joy
and may the love you share truly help to change the world.
Go forth in gladness and peace, Amen.

Cymbal

So many things I might share from the very rich conversations shared at last week's Retirees' Retreat!

Thanks to Red Butler for suggesting the link between "symbols" and "cymbals." Our discussion had done some spiraling around the notion of sybolism and sacrament. How important is the physical or material stuff we employ in our sacramental rituals? What is the function of this piece of bread, this drop of oil, this pool or lake or river we immerse in? How essential is this symbol? And how to understand its significance?

Then Red raised his arms holding up a grand set of imagined cymbals and brought his hands together with such a flourish we could almost hear the crash.

"It's the coming together of the Divine and the Human, the spirit and the matter. That's the symbol's job. Just like these cymbals." From that point in our week's conversations, whenever we would dig out the kernal of meaning and finally grasp what we'd been seeking, someone would raise their cymbals and we'd hear that Crash! of the Divine smashing into our human minds.

It was a great week!