and it was good

These beautiful new bowls came in the mail the other day, one of the many gifts we have been given, and which I love. I keep remembering people who I have yet to thank for the ways they helped during our wedding: the many friends who baked cakes, the ones who drove back-and-forth again and again to the airport, those who hosted out-of-town guests, put up garlands in the church, delivered donuts, volunteered as parking attendants, or cleaned our house after we left for the honeymoon. We were given so many gifts, and, at times, it is overwhelming to even begin to know how to say thank you.

I kept telling myself that the wedding day did not have to be the best day ever, because I know myself well, and the perfectionist tendencies latent within me, and I did not want to put that much pressure on one day. But, it was a very good day: full of rain and early morning yoga and prayer and dancing and all the people in the world who I love the most in one place at one time, and then, at the end of the day, we were married. Just like that. It is still surprising, and wonderful.

And these words, from the book I brought along to read on our honeymoon: "Love of music, of sunsets and sea; a liking for the same kind of people; political opinions that are not radically divergent; a similar stance as we look at the stars and think of the marvelous strangeness of this universe —these are what build a marriage. And it is never to be taken for granted." These things, and grace.