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| The beautiful Baby's Breath Bouquets. |
Marriage Address
Jon: If you ask most couples who have a strong and abiding love what they like most about their partners, they will usually say that they don’t have to pretend to be anything other than what they are. They are able to express themselves without fear of being judged or rejected. There is room in the relationship for both of them to be unique individuals. They are free to surrender to the possibility of profound intimacy – to be known and loved without condition.
Jon: If you ask most couples who have a strong and abiding love what they like most about their partners, they will usually say that they don’t have to pretend to be anything other than what they are. They are able to express themselves without fear of being judged or rejected. There is room in the relationship for both of them to be unique individuals. They are free to surrender to the possibility of profound intimacy – to be known and loved without condition.
I know that this love is what brought you both here today at this beautiful ceremony. However, no ceremony can create your marriage. Only you can do that through love, patience, dedication and perseverance. Through talking and listening and trying to understand. Through helping and supporting and believing in each other. Through learning to forgive, learning to respect and appreciate your differences. Through learning to make the important things matter and to let go of the rest.
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| One of our guests reading the program. |
Even though this ceremony does not create your marriage, what this ceremony can do is to witness and affirm the choice you have made to begin a new life today as husband and wife.
Reading II: An Apache Blessing
Jon: I would now like to invite Kamille to share an Apache blessing with us.
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| Kamille, a college friend of mine. |
[Kamille reads the following]
Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you. May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years. May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the earth. Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration, difficulties and fear assail your relationship, as they threaten all relationships at one time or another, remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong. In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives - remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there. And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.
To be continued!
Photos courtesy of Howie Hartman of Double H Media.
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We arrive in Pennsylvania
We arrive in Pennsylvania
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