Kvetch » Vows » Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository?
| Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository? [message #40800] |
Fri, 07 November 2003 17:40  |
 redflyer
Messages: 455
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So, I'm on a permanent quest to find just the right readings for my ceremony, and it's hard to find a lot of them in one place. If everyone would post theirs here, well, that's my problem solved. Hmm, so this is a totally selfish endeavor, but maybe others can benefit from it too!
I'll start by posting a few of my favorites below. I hope you'll all contribute!
[Updated on: Fri, 07 November 2003 17:51]
R.I. Red, once upon a time.
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| Hazrat Inayat Khan, "Gayan, Vadan, Nirtan" [message #40802] |
Fri, 07 November 2003 17:42  |
redflyer
Messages: 455
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Is love pleasure, is love merriment?
No, love is longing constantly;
love is persevering unwearedly;
love is hoping patiently;
love is willing surrender;
love is regarding constantly the pleasure and displeasure of the beloved,
for love is resignation to the will of the possessor of one’s heart;
it is love that teaches us: Thou, not I.
~Hazrat Inayat Khan
"Gayan, Vadan, Nirtan"
(Edited to make the title of the reading the subject of the post.)
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 15:20]
R.I. Red, once upon a time.
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| "Blessing for a Marriage," James Dillet Freeman [message #40805] |
Fri, 07 November 2003 17:44 |
redflyer
Messages: 455
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May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding.
May you always need one another - not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less, but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you.
May you need one another, but not out of weakness.
May you want one another, but not out of lack.
May you entice one another, but not compel one another.
May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another.
May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces.
May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults.
If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back.
May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence - no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities.
May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 15:21]
R.I. Red, once upon a time.
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| "On Marriage," by Kahlil Gibran, from "The Prophet" [message #40806] |
Fri, 07 November 2003 17:45 |
redflyer
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Really common, but a good one:
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 be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of 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.
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 15:21]
R.I. Red, once upon a time.
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| Pablo Neruda, excerpt from 100 Love Sonnets [message #40807] |
Fri, 07 November 2003 17:47 |
redflyer
Messages: 455
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I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way than this: Where “I” does not exist, nor “You”, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 15:23]
R.I. Red, once upon a time.
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| "Wedding Prayer" by Robert Louis Stevenson [message #40809] |
Fri, 07 November 2003 17:48 |
redflyer
Messages: 455
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Hmm, there's something sort of inherently pathetic in repeatedly responding to your own post, but I guess if I'm going to demand this readings repository, I'd better contribute!
***
Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow,
for the health, the work, the food,
and the bright skies that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Amen
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 15:24]
R.I. Red, once upon a time.
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| From "A Gift from the Sea" by Anne Morrow Lindberg [message #40810] |
Fri, 07 November 2003 17:49 |
redflyer
Messages: 455
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When you love someone, you do not love them all the time in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility, it is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity, in freedom. In the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.
The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting as it is now. For relationships, too, must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides. One must accept the security of the winged life, of the ebb and flow of intermittency.
****
Okay, that's enough from me for now. I'd love to see what everyone else has! Please post!
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 15:24]
R.I. Red, once upon a time.
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| Re: Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository? [message #40873] |
Sat, 08 November 2003 00:28 |
robynsoo
Messages: 12
Registered: October 2003
Location: Orange County, CA |
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Ooh...I love the last one you posted. Beautiful!
Here's what I'm hoping to include in our ceremony:
From Union by Robert Fulghum:
You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point, you decided to marry. From that moment of yes to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making promises and agreements in an informal way. All those conversations that were held riding in a car or over a meal or during long walks - all those sentences that began with “When we’re married” and continued with “I will and you will and we will”- those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe”- and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding. The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “ You know all those things we’ve promised and hoped and dreamed- well, I meant it all, every word.” Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another- acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never quite be the same between you. For after these vows, you shall say to the world, this- is my husband, this- is my wife.
It fits me and robynsooboy perfectly.
Okay, next! 
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| Song of Solomon, 2:10 (revised standard version) [message #40910] |
Sat, 08 November 2003 09:56 |
chyckadee
Messages: 114
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I love a lot of these -this is my favorite Old testament/hebrew bible reading. I put this on in an earlier post, its one we're definitely going to use, and i'll repost it here in the repository
Song of Solomon/ Song of Songs (title depends on the bible translation)is a nice one- its basically a series of pretty secular erotic love poems- my favorite bit, and a snippet of what i've seen used in weddings (and that we're using) is from the second chapter. I'm a revised standard version gal,
Ch. 2, v. 10
My beloved speaks and says to me
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
The time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 11:27]
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| Re: Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository? [message #41404] |
Mon, 10 November 2003 18:54 |
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Love Song, Rainer Maria Rilke
How can I keep my soul in me, so that
it doesn't touch your soul? How can I raise
it high enough, past you, to other things?
I would like to shelter it, among remote
lost objects, in some dark and silent place
that doesn't resonate when your depths resound.
Yet everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin's bow,
which draws one voice out of two separate strings.
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
Oh sweetest song.
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| Re: Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository? [message #41439] |
Mon, 10 November 2003 21:28 |
whatnot
Messages: 728
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ooh, good idea! Here are the ones we used. The first one is more about familial love than romantic love, but I've loved it since I first heard it as a little girl:
Ruth 1:16-17
"See now!" she said, "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god. Go back after your sister-in-law!"
But Ruth said, "Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! for wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Wherever you die I will die, and there be buried. May the Lord do so and so to me, and more besides, if aught but death separates me from you!"
Naomi then ceased to urge her, for she saw she was determined to go with her.
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| Re: Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository? [message #41440] |
Mon, 10 November 2003 21:30 |
whatnot
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Second reading: Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one: they get a good wage for their labor.
If the one falls, the other will lift up his companion. Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up. So also, if two sleep together, they keep each other warm. How can one alone keep warm? Where a lone man may be overcome, two together can resist. A three-ply cord is not easily broken.
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| Re: Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository? [message #41441] |
Mon, 10 November 2003 21:31 |
whatnot
Messages: 728
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Third reading: i carry your heart with me, by ee cummings
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)
i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
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| Re: Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository? [message #41443] |
Mon, 10 November 2003 21:35 |
whatnot
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(we didn't use this one in the ceremony, but we printed it in our program and people loved it!)
TIN WEDDING WHISTLE
Though you know it anyhow
Listen to me, darling, now,
Proving what I need not prove
How I know I love you, love.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Far and wide, far and wide,
I can walk with you beside;
Furthermore, I tell you what,
I sit and sulk where you are not.
Visitors remark my frown
Where you're upstairs and I am down,
Yes, and I'm afraid I pout
When I'm indoors and you are out;
But how contentedly I view
Any room containing you.
In fact I care not where you be,
Just as long as it's with me.
In all your absences I glimpse
Fire and flood and trolls and imps.
Is your train a minute slothful?
I goad the stationmaster wrothful.
When with friends to bridge you drive
I never know if you're alive,
And when you linger late in shops
I long to telephone the cops.
Yet how worth the waiting for,
To see you coming through the door.
Somehow, I can be complacent
Never but with you adjacent.
Near and far, near and far,
I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt
How to be it where you aren't.
Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,
To hold you in my sight forever;
Let none, not even you, disparage
Such valid reason for a marriage.
(Ogden Nash)
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| Apache wedding blessing [message #41836] |
Wed, 12 November 2003 10:46 |
lawn phoenicopterus
Messages: 1534
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Location: OR |
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Native American reading:
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 you are two persons, but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling to enter the days of your life together.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
[Updated on: Thu, 22 March 2007 14:49]
If 'elitist' just means 'not the dumbest motherfucker in the room,' I'll be an elitist!
--Get Your War On
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| Re: Can we make a giant ceremony readings repository? [message #41976] |
Wed, 12 November 2003 15:01 |
Mimi
Messages: 2419
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I would like to make a suggestion.
Whenever you post a reading in this thread,
1) change your posts title to reflect the title/author of the reading
2) cite your source as best as possible (title, author, book it is from, page/chapter/section it is found on, website address)
That way it is easier to skim through the thread in tree view (not sure how many people use tree view) or to find something you saw before. And it is always polite to identify the source.
And as an FYI, I have read that some people can find offense in the use of various Native American readings (just as some people are not pleased about others borrowing other cultural/religious rituals). This really varies person to person, and was something I had never thought about until I read discussions about such things on IB. I'm not saying you can't do such a thing, just wanted to point that out to people who might not be aware that you (potential) actions could offend. (FWIW, We also used what is referred to as the Apache Wedding Blessing).
[Updated on: Wed, 12 November 2003 15:02]
Sometimes your sanity gets in the way of my masterplan.
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| Excerpt from Uh-Oh By Robert Fulghum [message #41979] |
Wed, 12 November 2003 15:06 |
Mimi
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“How will I know when to get married or even if I should get married?”
A question asked of me by a former student who has been living with a man for three years. Their romance began in college and kept right on going through graduate school and into the “real” world of jobs and setting up housekeeping. Marriage was not in their plans because as long as things worked out just living together and taking one day at a time, why should they mess with a good thing? But she’s twenty-seven now. “And…well…you know…” she says, shrugging with eyebrows raised in that gesture people use when words can’t get at exactly what’s on their minds.
Well, I do know, as a matter of fact. One of the long-term benefits of having taught school is the ongoing relationship with people who come along behind me going through all the stages of growing older. And I’ve had this conversation before. Quite a few befores, actually.
Here’s Fulghum’s Formula for Marriage Testing, as passed on to my young friend:
“Heather, give me your first gut reaction to three questions.” She’s ready.
“First, if I asked you to take me and introduce me to the person you’ve known at least five years and would think of as your closest friend in the world, who would it be?”
Her eyes answer. “Him.”
“Second, if I asked you to take me to where ‘home’ is for you, where would it be?”
Her eyes answer. “Wherever he is.”
“Third, do you ever lie in bed at night with him, cuddled up spoon fashion, your backside to his front-side, and his arms around you and neither of you is thinking of sex; instead you are thinking how content you are just being there like that—at home with your closest friend, who just happens to be the man you love?”
Quiet. She was in tears. “How did you know?”
Well, for one thing, I have a home of my own.
And I told her that if he feels the same way, they’re married and just don’t know it yet. I pronounced them husband and wife right there. It’s only a question of whether or not she wants to have a party to celebrate that.
Source: Robert Fulghum. Uh-Oh. Ivy Books: New York, 1991. pages 68-70.
Sometimes your sanity gets in the way of my masterplan.
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| Blessing of the Apaches-slightly different version than above [message #41993] |
Wed, 12 November 2003 15:28 |
Mimi
Messages: 2419
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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, difficult 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.
Source: Ultimate Wedding: the ultimate internet wedding guide (www.ultimatewedding.com). This reading is located in their section on "Vows & Ceremonies". The exact URL is, http: www.ultimatewedding.com/vows/vows20.htm (this takes you directly to the reading, I put the space so it wouldn't automatically link).
Sometimes your sanity gets in the way of my masterplan.
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| Quick question about Native American readings. [message #42994] |
Fri, 14 November 2003 21:23 |
nidulant
Messages: 187
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Not to hijack or be a party-pooper, but does anyone know for sure that the blessings identified as Apache, Navajo, or Cherokee are authentically so? I like them too, but I'm a litle uneasy that I haven't seen any reliable source cited for them.
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| The Confirmation by Edwin Muir [message #43143] |
Sun, 16 November 2003 11:08 |
twiga
Messages: 147
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Location: rural Northeast |
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This was read by another sibling (we have five total, and each did a reading). I originally found this on a UK wedding site - can't find where.
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The Confirmation
By Edwin Muir
Yes, yours, my love, is the right human face.
I in my mind had waited for this long,
Seeing the false and searching for the true,
Then found you as a traveller finds a place
Of welcome suddenly amid the wrong
Valleys and rocks and twisting roads. But you,
What shall I call you? A fountain in a waste,
A well of water in a country dry,
Or anything that's honest and good, an eye
That makes the whole world bright. Your open heart,
Simple with giving, gives the primal deed,
The first good world, the blossom, the blowing seed,
The hearth, the steadfast land, the wandering sea.
Not beautiful or rare in every part.
But like yourself, as they were meant to be.
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| Song of the Open Road (last verse), by Walt Whitman [message #43145] |
Sun, 16 November 2003 11:15 |
twiga
Messages: 147
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Location: rural Northeast |
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Popular, but it suited us. This was the last reading before the vows. It's from 'Leaves of Grass'. I did think about how it was a bit weird to use a poem by someone who couldn't legally get married to his lover (if he were so inclined)were he still alive. I hope he wouldn't mind.
You should check this as it is a quick transcription - my brother read it from a collection at the ceremony.
-------------------------------------------------
Song of the Open Road
Walt Whitman
(15)
Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe--I have tried it--my own feet have tried it well--be not detain'd!
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the
shelf unopen'd!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the
court, and the judge expound the law.
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 11:16]
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| On the Loose by T. and R. Russell [message #43147] |
Sun, 16 November 2003 11:20 |
twiga
Messages: 147
Registered: August 2003
Location: rural Northeast |
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Joug's sister wanted to read this - not so much about weddings but very reflective of our lives. The book was published by the Sierra Club - I'm not sure how widely available it is. It was something she and Joug had growing up that they both loved.
----------------------------------------------------
From 'On the Loose' by Terry and Renny Russell (1963)
One of the best-paying professions is getting ahold of pieces of country in your mind,
learning their smell and their moods, sorting out the pieces of a view, deciding what grows there and there and why, how many steps that hill will take, where this creek winds and where it meets the other one below, what elevation timberline is now, whether you can walk this reef at low tide or have to climb around, which contour lines on a map mean better cliffs or mountains. This is the best kind of ownership, and the most permanent.
It feels good to say "I know the Sierra" or "I know Point Reyes". But of course you don't -- what you know better is yourself, and Point Reyes and the Sierra have helped.
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 11:27]
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| Namaste by Ram Dass [message #43149] |
Sun, 16 November 2003 11:27 |
twiga
Messages: 147
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Location: rural Northeast |
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Okaaay....
I like the sentiment of this reading very much, but I was hesitant to use it because I am queasy about cultural appropriation. We ended up going with it because Joug's brother read it and he and Joug had travelled in Nepal. Also because I was just so happy to have someone other than myself make a suggestion for what they wanted to contribute to the ceremony.
It comes from a slim book called 'Blessings' - I forget who edited it, and I don't own the book, but it is a collection of short prayers/reflections from a variety of traditions. Definitely check the book for the original format of the wording.
------------------------------------------------------------ --
from Grist for the Mill by Ram Dass
In India, when we meet and part we often say "Namaste," which means I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you. Where if you are in that place in you and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.
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| Hazrat Inayat Khan, "Gayan, Vadan, Nirtan" [message #43183] |
Sun, 16 November 2003 15:04 |
redflyer
Messages: 455
Registered: June 2003
Location: The biggest li'l state in... |
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Wow, I'm so excited to see some of these reading here. I was having such a hard time finding decent things that hadn't been insanely overused. Not anymore!
I'll add a few more that I've found in my travels through the 'net:
"I searched, but I could not find Thee; I called Thee aloud, standing on the minaret; I rang the temple bell with the rising and setting of the sun... I looked for Thee on the earth; I searched for Thee in the heavens, my Beloved, but at last I have found Thee hidden as a pearl in the shell of my heart."
-Hazrat Inayat Khan, "Gayan, Vadan, Nirtan"
(Kahn is the founder of the Sufi movement of Islam, I think. Please feel free to correct me on that.)
[Updated on: Sun, 16 November 2003 15:08]
R.I. Red, once upon a time.
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| Alice Walker 'Beyond What' [message #43280] |
Mon, 17 November 2003 01:57 |
Mazzy
Messages: 327
Registered: June 2003
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No Message Body
[Updated on: Mon, 07 November 2005 10:10]
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| More from "The Prophet" (Kahlil Gibran) [message #44570] |
Thu, 20 November 2003 09:01 |
Hells_Belle
Messages: 1863
Registered: November 2003
Location: NY > London > Cork! |
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Think not you can direct the course of love, for love,
if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love give naught but of itself, and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed;
for love is sufficient unto itself.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
When you love, let these be your desires:
to melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody, to the night.
to know the pain of too much tenderness.
to be wounded by your own understanding of love; and bleed willingly and joyfully;
to wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
to rest at the noon hour and mediate love’s ecstasy;
to return home at eventide with gratitude;
and then to sleep with a prayer for your beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
The Prophet on Love
Kahlil Gibran
http://www.usabride.com/vows_passages/poem_gilbran.html
"As above, so below."
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| A Birthday, by Christina Rossetti [message #44572] |
Thu, 20 November 2003 09:10 |
Hells_Belle
Messages: 1863
Registered: November 2003
Location: NY > London > Cork! |
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My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
Source: http://www.poetry-archive.com/r/a_birthday.html
"As above, so below."
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| The Ivy Crown,William Carlos Williams [message #44573] |
Thu, 20 November 2003 09:18 |
Hells_Belle
Messages: 1863
Registered: November 2003
Location: NY > London > Cork! |
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The whole process is a lie,
unless,
crowned by excess,
It break forcefully,
one way or another,
from its confinement—
or find a deeper well.
Antony and Cleopatra
were right;
they have shown
the way. I love you
or I do not live
at all.
Daffodil time
is past. This is
summer, summer!
the heart says,
and not even the full of it.
No doubts
are permitted—
though they will come
and may
before our time
overwhelm us.
We are only mortal
but being mortal
can defy our fate.
We may
by an outside chance
even win! We do not
look to see
jonquils and violets
come again
but there are,
still,
the roses!
Romance has no part in it.
The business of love is
cruelty which,
by our wills,
we transform
to live together.
It has its seasons,
for and against,
whatever the heart
fumbles in the dark
to assert
toward the end of May.
Just as the nature of briars
is to tear flesh,
I have proceeded
through them.
Keep
the briars out,
they say.
You cannot live
and keep free of
briars.
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 finger tips.
We will it so
and so it is
past all accident.
Source: http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/lit209/ivycrown.html
"As above, so below."
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| The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) [message #44590] |
Thu, 20 November 2003 09:52 |
Hells_Belle
Messages: 1863
Registered: November 2003
Location: NY > London > Cork! |
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"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.
"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."
And the roses were very much embarrassed.
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you-- the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.
And he went back to meet the fox.
"Goodbye," he said.
"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose..."
"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Chapter 21, The Little Prince Befriends the Fox
Source
"As above, so below."
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 Re: "Wedding Prayer" by Robert Louis Stevenson [message #44981] |
Thu, 20 November 2003 21:05 |
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RIred, your posts are MUCH appreciated. i've just gotten engaged four days ago..and while we are not yet planning anything, i am looking for ideas. when i close my eyes i have no vision of the wedding i want and your posts have been so helpful! i'm sorry i have nothing to share with you.
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| Cries of the Spirit (Carter Heyward) [message #44992] |
Thu, 20 November 2003 22:03 |
Hells_Belle
Messages: 1863
Registered: November 2003
Location: NY > London > Cork! |
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"Loving involves commitment. We are not automatic lovers of self, others, world, or God. Love does not just happen. We are not love machines, puppets on the strings of a deity called "love". Love is a choice -- not simply, or necessarily, a rational choice, but rather a willingness to be present to others without pretence or guile. Love is a conversion to humanity -- a willingness to participate with others in the healing of a broken world and broken lives. Love is the choice to experience life as a member of the human family, a partner in the dance of life, rather than as an alien in the world or as a deity above the world, aloof and apart from human flesh."
Source: Unitarian.org.uk
"As above, so below."
Poochie Poochie: Canine Couture | Hoochie Poochie: The Dog Blog!
Bartlet for President 2008
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| In Midsummer a Wedding, by Arnold Kenseth [message #45234] |
Fri, 21 November 2003 13:57 |
Martita
Messages: 98
Registered: June 2003
Location: The Adirondacks |
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A poem by Arnold Kenseth, who was a minister and poet, and also happened to be my grandma's college beau.
Just perfect for our July wedding!
****
Now in midsummer a wedding. Attend.
Applaud. The music must be played lightly,
Quietly, at first, like July birdsongs
Hidden in thickets, like sun drying out
The mornings, like grass browsing, dreaming.
Then the words: this man, protecting, serving,
Believing; and this woman, favoring,
Giving, hoping. This family arriving.
Let the music accentuate, arise, float.
Dearly beloved, very dearly beloved,
This act praises and extends us all, as if,
In the afternoon airs, we are all made
Family, as if we are all sun, grass, dreaming.
Now, bells, astound! Ring out aloud, aloft!
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