Well maybe I should say love and weddings are in the air. 'Tis the season, and the age I suppose, for the weddings of the important people we know.
Our family is in our friend Shanti's wedding in a month and I have to give the toast! Yikes. I could tell you everything about everything in a blog post without batting an eye, but a speech? In front of people? I could work eight months on an art exhibition and share it with thousands of others, but eight minutes of public speaking? Not really my forte. But I've been practicing. At night, the moment I feel Echo's body go limp beside me, I run through the words I've collected. It's fun really. I love Shanti. And I know her really well so it's really just a matter of painting her picture in front of friends and family.
I'm also making their wedding cake toppers. Chickens.
I have our chickens to observe for the details, and also a couple photocopies of roosters and hens, as well as a darling photo of the couple themselves. As a result I've got two chicken figurines that, at least vibrationally, feel like our friends. I made another unique pair, the pair pictured above, to sell in my etsy shop. So if you know anyone with a farm/chicken-themed wedding send them over!
And then over the weekend our friends got married in the park. It was so sweet, really a community effort of collected tent canopies, potlucked food, blankets spread on the ground, and kids in fancy dresses and/or bathing suits. The groom, the father of the bride's youngest child, was quite aware that he was marrying the whole family and wrote his vows to include not only his beloved but her first two children as well. They stood together as a family at the grassy altar and made a commitment to their smiling unit. Absolutely tear inducing let me tell you.
And then there's Nathan and I. We love each other too. Here we are at the weekend wedding:
It looks like we're hardly talking but really we hardly stop talking and are simply people watching while talking. There is always a conversation going between us, sometimes one that carries through an entire day, interrupted by events and kids and time, but still seamlessly picked up without missing a beat. Protein, metaphysics, parenting, fashion, vitamin D, other people - the topics are nothing if not varied.
Then yesterday morning I woke up to this:
Which if you are me, is translated immediately as "Will You Marry Me?" But if you are a non-me human it might look like "Flowers + Cucumber + Bride Figurine?" In fact even though I thought I knew what it meant I still ran through literal translations before I checked the YES box.
I'll slow down and explain things a bit. The flowers are nicotiana, the bloom that only gives it's intoxicating scent at night, and the very flower by which Nathan wooed me so many years ago. The lemon cucumber is my favorite garden vegetable ever since my grandpa planted them for me as a child, and Nathan makes sure he has several in our garden each year. They are a love letter in living form. The bride is one of those obnoxious tiny plastic thingies that find their way into our daily experience. This bride has broken feet so spends many days in the to-be-glued pile but has most recently, for whatever reason, been joining us on the kitchen table during dinner. Her presence in the proposal is the only actual literal part.
Nathan and I have been together nine years. We started co-parenting his children when Bella was three and Xi was an infant. We've been living together seven years and have our own five year old. We have been madly in love this whole time. If married means committed then we are as married as all the legally married folk. I should also say that Nathan has asked me to marry him more times than I can count.
And I say yes every single time.
So I said yes again. But this time I had a little Echo next to me who was standing mouth agape while I translated the proposal for her. Her eyebrows wagged. Her hands were clasped at her throat. There was actual gasping. Oh how she wants us to do a ceremony with the white dress and the whole nine yards! Last night her last words before falling asleep were: So you really said yes to Papa?
Yes I did.
And maybe. Maybe someday it will feel just right to gather our people and do that sort of thing. It certainly would please these three girls. But right now I like things the way they are. I like how we are. We're perfect.
But it's always fun to be asked. I'm glad we're getting to do that part again and again.
