The peonies are finished blooming here in Virginia. These flowers were gathered for the wedding of our friends’ daughter that we attended over the weekend. It reminded me that as we prepared in September 2017 for our daughter’s October wedding, we invited a group of potter friends to come help us to make mugs as gifts for the guests. One friend happened to be visiting from Homer, Alaska so she chose to gift us with a fresh, beautiful peony bouquet she had brought all that way in a cooler.

I have been thinking how weddings are like spiders webs. They bring together all the connecting threads of friendship, family history, and hope for both the spoken and the silent dreams. The weather over the weekend was spectacular. It felt as if every window had kept its promise to open. My hope is that these flowers bless you, that the vase with all its fierceness and tenderness encourages us all to find vast beauty in the days of our future.

A Blessing for a Wedding

Today when persimmons ripen
Today when fox-kits come out of their den into snow
Today when the spotted egg releases its wren song
Today when the maple sets down its red leaves
Today when windows keep their promise to open
Today when fire keeps its promise to warm
Today when someone you love has died
     or someone you never met has died
Today when someone you love has been born
     or someone you will not meet has been born
Today when rain leaps to the waiting of roots in their dryness
Today when starlight bends to the roofs of the hungry and tired
Today when someone sits long inside his last sorrow
Today when someone steps into the heat of her first embrace
Today, let this light bless you
With these friends let it bless you
With snow-scent and lavender bless you
Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly
Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears
Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes
Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you
Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days

—Jane Hirshfield, in Come, Thief, Knopf, 2008