Help needed! Looking for a reading for a friend's wedding

[TheProphetess]

My very good friend (the one who introduced me to EstimatedProphet) is getting married and she wants me to do a reading during her wedding ceremony. She asked me if I had any ideas and so I am asking for your help. She said she'd consider anything not too sappy: it could be religious or nonreligious, poetry, song lyrics, etc. Whatcha got for me?

:hi:

[tk2kewl]

1. Apache Wedding Prayer

Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.

Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.

Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.

Now you are two bodies,
But there is one life before you.

Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

[Radio_Lady]

3. Goodness, that's a beautiful poem!

[tk2kewl]

6. my wife and I chose that for our wedding

and when she asked the priest (an 80 yr old catholic priest) if we could choose any readings we wanted he said "sure, as long as it's not some stupid Indian poem. I had a couple once... blah, blah..."

So her sister read it at the reception. :D

[Radio_Lady]

17. What a woeful response! That just about holds a candle to the rabbi who married us.

My two stepdaughters had lost their mother to cancer at ages 8 and 11.

I asked them if they wanted to continue with Sunday School (where they were enrolled and learning Hebrew).

Both of them said "No." The younger one was barely doing well with English in her regular school.

After I told the education director I was not re-enrolling them that semester, the Rabbi telephoned our house and told my stepdaughters that they were both "going to Hell".

[tk2kewl]

19. I thought jews didn't believe in hell?

:shrug:

My Sunday plans for our son after he is born are secular humanist services in the winter and playtime in the summer. :D

[Radio_Lady]

23. Essentially, you are correct. But this particular man of God was pride personified.

I'm reporting what the girls told me that day.

[helderheid]

5. beat me to it while I was googling! I have this framed - it was read at my wedding.

[AllegroRondo]

7. I got a framed copy as a wedding present

its very nice

[TheProphetess]

10. Wow - that is beautiful!

I'm sure she will like this one very much. Thank you!

[VenusRising]

27. This was read at our wedding, too.

It's just beautiful and expressive.

:hi:

[steelemagnolia]

32. This was read at my wedding - Love it - Gets my vote

[Radio_Lady]

2. Husband and I spoke at nephew's wedding in 1995, but my computer crashed in the interim...

We were unable to recover the data.

[helderheid]

4. Native American Prayer (Apache)

Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no loneliness;
Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling,
to enter into your life together.
And may your days be good
and long upon the earth.

[TheProphetess]

16. It is a good one

Thanks!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. My dear Prophetess!

How about Khalil Gibran, from his book "The Prophet"?

His chapter on marriage is sooooooo wonderful...

My husband and I used some of it in our wedding, 42 years ago!

Here's a sample:

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

And it goes on....

:hug:

[Radio_Lady]

12. Peggy, every time I think about something that I do that my husband doesn't wish to do...

I think of Gibran:

...Let there be spaces in your togetherness.

And which poem of his starts with:

Your children are not your children -- they live in the house of the future, which you cannot visit --

Wonder what happened to the book I had?

OT: How's your hubby? I had good news about the heart test. That proves that do I HAVE A HEART, contrary to one or two DUer's unpopular opinions...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

21. Thanks for asking!

He's fine!

The surgery went very well.....

No damage to the rotator cuff!

I knew you had a heart!

Glad to hear yours went well too...

:hug:

[Radio_Lady]

24. Here's one translation of the poem about children:

Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of
Children."

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you
with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that
is stable.

-- Kahlil Gibran

[Radio_Lady]

25. Hey, maybe I should have read that at my stepdaughter's wedding...

An inside joke: She was married in June 1985 and had her daughter on October 7, 1985. We supported her fully in her decision to marry the guy.

[TheProphetess]

13. Oh my - that's very touching

I love it! Thank you, Peggy.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

22. Glad you like it!

I suspect his work on marriage is used more than nearly anything else in weddings...

It is so touching!

:hug:

[Orrex]

9. "Man from Nantucket" is always nice

Poignant, without being too sentimental.

[TheProphetess]

15. Well, it certainly isn't sappy

:rofl:

[EstimatedProphet]

11. We could do Lear's and the Fool's exchange from King Lear

She might like that.

[TheProphetess]

14. Ok, you tell her

:crazy:

[EstimatedProphet]

18. Do you think she'd rather have Marc Antony's speech from Julius Caesar?

[TheProphetess]

20. She may un-invite you

Just sayin' :shrug:

[LostinVA]

26. I Corinthians 13

Use the NKJV version.

[TheProphetess]

35. That's what I call the "old standby"

just b/c I've read it during 4 other weddings! I do still think it's a good one.

[LostinVA]

38. Me too!

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. I used to do the Apache prayer, and a reading from Gibran's The Prophet

"When love beckons to you,
follow him,
though his ways are hard
and steep....
You were born together
and together you shall be
forevermore.
You shall be together
when the white wings of death
scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together
even in the silent memory
of the universe.
But let there be spaces
in your togetherness,
and let the winds of the heavens
dance between you.

Love one another,
but make not a bond of love;
let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores
of your souls.

Fill each other's cup
but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread
but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together
and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of the lute
are alone
though they quiver
with the same music,
give your hearts
but not into
each other's keeping,
for only the hand of life
can contain your hearts.
And stand together,
yet not too near together;
for pillars of the temple
stand apart,
and the oak tree and the cypress
grow not
in each other's shadow."

I'm afraid that I might have deleted some of the original over the years, but I can't remember, and I don't have the original to compare it to any more.

I also like this passage from Song of Solomon:

Song of Solomon:

The voice of my beloved!
Look! He comes!
Leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My beloved speaks and says to me:
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
For now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the Earth;
the time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtle dove
is heard in our land.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
it would be utterly scorned.

[Iris]

29. Ann Morrow Lindbergh wrote some good stuff.

Check out "Gifts from the Sea" and here are a couple:

Ann Morrow Lindbergh - A Good Relationship Has a Pattern Like a Dance

A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back -- it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

http://www.elise.com/quotes/a/ann_morrow_lindbergh_a_good_relationship_has_a_pattern_like_a_dance.php





"The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the present and accepting it as it is now." -
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

http://www.quotesandpoem.com/quotes/showquotes/author/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh/13278

[Iris]

30. Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote some good stuff about marriage/relationships:

Check out "Gifts from the Sea" and here are a couple:

Ann Morrow Lindbergh - A Good Relationship Has a Pattern Like a Dance

A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back -- it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

http://www.elise.com/quotes/a/ann_morrow_lindbergh_a_good_relationship_has_a_pattern_like_a_dance.php




"The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the present and accepting it as it is now." -
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

http://www.quotesandpoem.com/quotes/showquotes/author/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh/13278

[TheProphetess]

36. Cool - thanks!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

31. One of my favorite passages from "The Velveteen Rabbit"

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

[TheProphetess]

37. I like that for a child's room

Frame it and hang it on the wall. Thanks!

[Oeditpus Rex]

33. You might take some cues from this

The wedding scene in "Little Murders," the greatest dark comedy of all. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgwjHBUW9MY

[TheProphetess]

34. Yeah, she does have a sense of humor but I'm thinking no

:rofl: