The Knot is Tied...and Loosed

The last official wedding launch at our house is concluded. There is still clutter all around, decorations scattered all over north Texas, which will have to gathered, and of course the re cleaning of the house. I made the tactical mistake of planning my next business trip on Monday following the wedding, so we won't get to the cleanup for another couple of days.

If I say so myself, the wedding ceremony went really well. There were some fun moments, some contemplative moments, some serious moments, which all led to a simple, sweet event that my daughter seemed happy with, and that was my intent. Of course all of this was made possible by my wife's six month, intense wedding gathering, my wife's cousin's coordination skills (she missed her only son's high school playoff game to coordinate my daughter's wedding, I can't tell you how humbling it is to have someone love us that much and that graciously. There was not a single negative word or look or moment because she was missing a huge moment in her life. Wow.) And my daughter bet me I would lose it in the ceremony. I did not lose it at the ceremony, and fortunately the bet did not carry over to the reception.

At the reception, they announced the bride and groom as they came in, thunderous applause, and they went straight to the dance floor for their "first dance." There is no recollection of what the song was, I remember it being sweet and nice. But what I really remember is the face of my youngest. As she danced with her new husband there was such a display of emotion. Her face was simply radiant with her love, the only other time I remember the intensity of that emotion was watching my wife hold each of our grandbabies for the first time, cooing with love as she drank in the enormity of this new life. My youngest was crying, then smiling, then laughing, then staring at the man she had just married, almost like she couldn't believe the gift of love handed to her. It was as if this moment had been preserved from the begining of time for them, and them alone.

As they danced, the thought that came to my mind was that this job, this creation and nurturing of a life entrusted to me and my bride was a job truly done well. Like coming to the end of long and challenging journey, it was nice to see that the result was far better than we had hoped or even imagined. And so, yes, it choked up this old daddy's heart. I had fastened that knot as securely as I could, not with the words in the ceremony, but with the partnership with my bride, with the example of living through tough times, of loving each other when one or both of us was unlovable, of showing the best side we could of commitment in the face of adversity. In dancing a "first dance" that will never end.

If the bet included the reception, I lost miserably, and I lost gladly. There is nothing wrong with letting the heart flow, it is God's gift to us.

Godspeed, my littlest chick, may the dance never end.
Don