Its been awhile since I posted a blog, I’ve been so busy with work and my daughter’s wedding last week that its been difficult to find time to sit down and write all the thoughts swirling in my head. This week I’m deviating from my current series to share some thoughts that I shared at the wedding and that I’ve been pondering a lot lately.
Here is what I shared at the wedding:
They Are Not Long – Ernest Dowson
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| Daddy Daughter Dance |
Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam.
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate;
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses,
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
“Today as you stand here at the beginning at the rest of your lives its hard to fathom what that means and it seems like it’s all the time in the world. But it will go faster than you can ever imagine. Your dad and I will be married 40 years in December, your grand parents have been married almost 65 years. For them and us it does seem only like a whisper.
The theme tonight is wine and roses and the more I think about that the more I realize what a fitting theme because it reminds us of how short life is.
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| Wine and Roses – centerpieces |
Even the best bottle of wine turns to vinegar if it is not stored and aged correctly – then after it is opened it has to be consumed relatively quickly or the flavor fades and spoils. These beautiful roses around this evening will begin to droop by tomorrow. We need to enjoy the fragrance, color, texture and beauty tonight because tomorrow they will be fading.
Life is a gift that is here and gone. Job said that life is a vapor – like steam from a tea kettle on the stove that blows its whistle and then dissipates.
My advice to you tonight is to savor the moments. Don’t wait till the time is right to begin enjoying the life together the Lord has given you. Don’t waste time on petty grievances, grudges, hurt feelings or selfishness.
Love, laugh, enjoy the moments, grieve, cry, hurt, work hard – take it all in – the good and the bad.
Chose Life and Live!”
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| “The Shoes” |
Just to elaborate on this a little – Older folks always say this kind of thing to younger folks, time goes so fast, stop and smell the roses and so on. Younger people never listen. When we are younger we all think we have forever and can get to it later. Well as we get older we realize that we haven’t gotten to most of the things we wanted to get to. However, with most things its not too late to start. No matter how old you are you can always start right now to stop and smell the roses, enjoy a glass of wine, keep short accounts, love, laugh, live, stop holding grudges, stop being angry stop putting off what needs to be done, stop putting off what youwant to do. Its time to get to that “Bucket List.”
I’m going to start today to take my own advice, I’m going to love more, live fuller, give and forgive deeper.
I’m going to choose life and live!
Grace and Peace
Anita
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