Saturday 30 March 2019

C.S. Lewis is the author of today's wedding reading


"Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are many things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling… knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go… But, of course, ceasing to be in love need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense - love as distinct from being in love - is not merely a feeling.  It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit: reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask and receive from God.  They can have this love for each other even at those times when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself.  “Being in love” first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise.  It is on this level that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it."

Sunday 24 March 2019

Wedding Reading from Anonymous

Today's wedding reading is called "The Elements of Love". 

"May your love be like the earth – rich, natural and deeply rooted. Strong as rock, yet soft as sand. Always growing, always patient.

May your love be like fire – passionate, intense and energetic. A flame that never dies, as radiant as the morning sun, and as warm as an evening embrace.

May your love be like the water – moving, constantly changing. Never still, never stagnant. As vast as the ocean and as fresh as a spring’s rain.

May your love be like air – the sharing of dreams, thoughts and emotions. Always fragrant, always carefree. Found in the breeze of a whisper or the breath of a kiss.

May your love be like all four elements – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually intertwined to create the perfect balance, and to craft the perfect ribbon for to bind these two hearts into one."

Saturday 16 March 2019

Robert Fulghum Nails It

Today's reading is an excerpt from Robert Fulghum's book, "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten".

"All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life—learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup—they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned—the biggest word of all—LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world—had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are—when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together."

Sunday 10 March 2019

A Sweet Reading

Today's reading's are a collection of quotes from Winnie the Pooh.  Yes, that's right.  Even stuffed bears have something valuable to say.

Winnie The Pooh by A.A. Milne.

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”

Piglet: “How do you spell ‘love’?”
Pooh: “You don’t spell it…you feel it.”

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet.”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. “I just wanted to be sure of you.

We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Pooh?” asked Piglet.
“Even longer”, Pooh answered.

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

“Love is taking a few steps backward, maybe even more…to give way to the happiness of the person you love.”

"If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.”

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

“‘When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,’ said Piglet at last, ‘What’s the first thing you say to yourself?’
‘What’s for breakfast?’ said Pooh. ‘What do you say, Piglet?’
‘I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?’ said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. ‘It’s the same thing,’ he said.”


Saturday 2 March 2019

The Art of Marriage

Today was a lovely day.  Not necessarily weather wise, but definitely otherwise.  I had the privilege of performing a handfasting ceremony for a really lovely couple.  It's not often I get to do that, and it was really such a pleasure.

A wedding is largely about symbols; symbols are important and helpful because they make an idea and a value concrete and physical - something we can see and touch. They're helpful because they serve as a powerful reminder of a time and place and a memory - a feeling and even a promise - that may have faded over time.

Handfasting is a symbol like this.  It's one of the world's oldest wedding traditions and it's found in cultures all over the world.  In joining hands, the couple symbolizes how they freely offer their lives to one another.  And in fastening their hands together, the ribbon symbolizes how the couple leaves with their lives now bound up together - how after today, and idea of two stories comes together and two sets of hopes and desires for the future are joined in commitment and intention.

So, without giving away any names, thank you for the honour of allowing me to be part of your ceremony.

Now, onto today's wedding reading.  I think it should be The Art of Marriage by W. A. Peterson.  Here it is.

"Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created. In marriage the little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humour.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow old.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner; it is being the right partner."