My husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this week. In a non-pandemic environment, we might have thrown a party to celebrate. Instead, we enjoyed a coffee date together, walked outside, and recreated some of our reception menu for dinner. I also completed our wedding photo album (if not for a 20-year milestone, when would I have done it?) and found a copy of our ceremony that I wrote for the occasion. The words remain powerful today and reminded me of the promise we held so early in our relationship and how we’ve drawn from that source again and again as years pass. May the words continue to serve us all as a prayer, a promise, a meditation, a celebration:
Welcome Love
Welcome love that begins at dawn, that starts with a word, that inspires your thoughts and strengthens the power of your mind. Breathe in the sweet fragrance of this love.
Welcome love that brings light, the fire that sets your heart dancing and awakens your passions. Honor the purifying energy of this love.
Welcome love that washes you clean, that sustains and holds you even in deep water. Relax into the gentle arms of this love.
Welcome love that feeds you, nourishes you, comforts you. Move into the beautiful home of this love.
Welcome love that exists at the center of all things, that holds all mysteries and heals all wounds. Open your hearts to the spirit of this love.
Promises of Spring
We start from a place of abundance, of new beginnings, of promises. Spring is a time of growth, healing, new life, new light. All around us we see the promise that life will continue. We witness the tenacity of bulbs that survived the dark winter and now literally move the earth to emerge into a new cycle of life and blossom, transformed into beautiful flowers.
We give thanks for our past and our future. Having ourselves lived through cycles of darkness, death and loss, we were able to rise this morning and greet our loved ones and gather here. We understand both joy and suffering allow us to grow deeper and more beautiful. We miss the people who cannot be with us here: our parents and others now separated by time, distance, or death. We know that they love us and are here in spirit.
Today, the truth of your love for each other is evident, as clear as the full moon on the water, shining bright with possibilities.
- Honor this person who miraculously found their way into your life.
- Respect each other.
- Thank each other.
- Believe and see the perfection and innocence in each other.
- Carry the vision and hold the space for each other’s beauty and brilliance
- Live in each moment fully and consciously.
- May you find in each other’s love profound acceptance
- May you learn to support, to listen, to understand.
- May you learn to give joy, to nurture, and to share.
- May your perception of each other’s beauty wash away all self-hatred.
- May your forgiveness of each other’s errors release each of you from guilt.
- May you provide a sense of home to each other.
- May you grow wise in this relationship.
- May you grow ever stronger and more glorious in love.
Live in Love
I give you my promise that from this day forward you shall not walk alone.
May my heart be your shelter and my arms be your home.
May we walk together through all things.
May you feel deeply loved, as you are truly loved.
We give thanks for the spirit of love that surrounds us.
We give thanks for the home of love that feeds us and comforts us.
We give thanks for the ocean of love that keeps our hearts open and pliant.
We give thanks for the fire of love that purifies our passions and desires.
We give thanks for the words of love that inspire and strengthen us.
