The wedding ceremony was over…the reception was well on it’s way…
when the grandfather took the newlyweds aside whispering,
“There’s something I’d like to say.”
“You will always remember this moment over which your love has cast its spell…
but my advice is to make sure you enjoy all the little moments of love as well.
Huge moments like today are wonderful…worth savoring…as everybody knows…
but it’s the little moments spent together every day…where love is nurtured…
where love grows.
It’s how the touch a hand upon your cheek…
or a simple kiss can make your insides spin…
It’s holding hands so tightly you don’t know where your hand ends
and where the other hand begins…
It’s feeling how well you fit together in those moments you embrace….
feeling like every day you’ve won a prize.
It’s immediately knowing something’s wrong…
when you look into each other’s eyes.
It’s knowing what the other one is thinking…
It’s enduring all kinds of weather…
It’s accepting each other for you you are
as you grow up and grow old together.
It’s how…when you close your eyes and think of each other…
It will always make you smile.
It’s remembering forever this day…the day you walked together down the aisle.
Finally it’s understanding your life together will have moments of sorrow
As well as moments of great joy and thrills….
It’s knowing every moment won’t be perfect…bus so many moments will.
So go and have a wonderfully happy life…
filled with huge moments like you’ve never seen….
while never forgetting to enjoy…
all the little moment in between.
I co-officiated a three generation wedding yesterday…
My son Bryan co-officiated with me….
and since it was my grandsons wedding…
in terms of generations that makes three.
The wedding was at our cabin in the mountains…
still cherished by the Cherokee.
The bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome
The weather was as fine as it could be
I’ve been blessed to live a life…that has had less valleys and more peaks…
and to have made the kind of memories…as the Cherokee say:
speak out of my eyes and cascade down my cheeks.
Under a blue sky dappled with the colors of autumn It was a truly beautiful day…
and I added a host more to an already wonderful array.
I’ll remember getting our cabin ready for the wedding…
Our son Ryan and his wife Amy…helped us to believe…
we could turn our driveway into a wedding chapel
under the trees…with a carpet of fallen leaves.
I’ll remember one dog in a tuxedo…and another in a flowered lei.
I’ll remember Ali, our daughter and Damien’s Mom’s tears on his wedding day.
I’ll remember the faces of Trista and Damien…as they looked into each other’s eyes…
I’ll remember how Bryan helped to make them laugh…while I innocently made them cry.
I’ll remember all the people who came…how Sofia, Damien’s sister rang the wedding bell…
I’ll remember when it was over…thinking how everything went so well.
As I sit back now to write this poem…
I’m trying hard to remember everything…every detail that was important to me.
replaying them over and over again…so they will remain etched in my memory.
So years from now…when I think about this day…
when it’s this day’s memories I seek….
they will speak happily out of my eyes
as they cascade gently down my cheeks.