Saturday, September 3, 2011

Welcome Words

The Marriage of Janet and David Henderson
August 20, 2011


Good Morning. Welcome to this joyous feast of love.
We make so much of love. We paint it into the clouds, just beyond our reach. We stitch it down, with golden threads of expectation, expectations no human can hope to fulfill.  We dance love into hyperbolic ecstasy, and are disappointed when we need to sit down and rest. We lay the tables in our minds with platter upon platter of exotic fare, and are disappointed when, sated with a piece of bread and a sip of wine, we nap, content, while the banquet grows cold.
All this because there are not words, not art, not philosophy, not music, not religion that can fully express the simple joy of holding hands.
 We cannot articulate the simple, the pure joy—of a hand cupped beneath a chin or smoothing the hair from our brow; of an embrace at the end of the day or when the news is frightening; the shared emotion when joy bursts through the door, or sorrow creeps over the window sill.
 We can’t “say” it. But we can act on it. Today, Janet and David have joined us together to remind us. They have tossed back the hyperbole, and cast off the cynicism of our time, all times.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Rites


Spring comes on the wings of a swallowed-tailed kite
ascetic white and black
scissoring the sky
hungry for life
gorging on the wing
whispering into the wind
secrets gleaned from darker places, deeper jungles
flying from fire
into a landscape pregnant with promise
and devastation

Circling. Circling.
Those who stop
to look
to watch
to pray
to cry
to listen
to praise
are saved.

Spring comes on the wings of a swallowed-tailed kite
ascetic white and black
scissoring the sky
hungry for life
gorging on the wing
whispering into the wind
secrets gleaned from darker places, deeper jungles
flying from fire
into a landscape pregnant with promise
and devastation

Wheeling. Wheeling.
Those who stop
to look
to watch
to pray
to cry
to listen
to mourn
cannot escape
but they are saved.