The readings from our wedding were chosen with great thought. They are a reflection of us and our spirituality.
Pat's brother John gave the first reading. Pat chose it from a William Carlos Williams poem. I'm not sure what its official title is but I call it the Old Lovers Poem. It's from a group of poems called Desert Music
"Children pick flowers...let them. Though having them in hand they have no further use for them but leave them crumpled at the curb's edge. At our age the imagination across the sorry facts lifts us to make roses stand before thorns.
Sure, love is cruel and selfish and totally obtuse - at least, blinded by the light, young love is. But we are older, I to love and you to be loved, we have, no matter how, by our wills survived to keep the jeweled prize always at our fingertips. We will it so, and so it is past all accident."
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John giving his reading.
Next it was Reverend Randy's turn. Randy used his own reading from Paul to the Corinthians 1;13
"Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited, it is never rude or selfish, it does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's faults, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope. It is always ready to endure whatever comes. True love does not come to an end."
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Paul, Kat, Margaret, Pat, & Sean listen to Randy.
My daughter Kat read something about marriage I had chosen from Kahlil Gibran on Marriage taken from The Prophet.
"Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, Master? And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there by spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond 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 from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one 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 each other's shadow."
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Kat reading from Gibran's The Prophet.
"Sister Margaret" as Rev. Randy referred to her, gave a very moving reading from another William Carlos Williams poem from Desert Music which Pat had chosen
"Mother of God! Our Lady! The heart is an unruly Master: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. We submit ourselves to Your Holy rule - against that impossible springtime when men shall be the flowers spread at your feet.
I do not come to you save that I confess to being half man and half woman. I have seen the ivy cling to a piece of crumbled wall so that you cannot tell by which either stands: this is to say if she to whom I cling is loosened both of us go down.
You are young and fit to be loved. I declare it boldly with my heart in my teeth and my knees knocking together. Yet I declare it, and by Godıs word it is no lie."
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Margaret Lukens reads while the bride, groom, and Sean listen.
(Champagne & Cake) (First Dance) (Bride & Groom) (Family & Friends) (Maggie's Heaven)
