A hundred folding seats on a flagstone terrace. A wedding swirling with guests, drinks, canapes. Flashes from cameras blink across the crowd. Thrumming music surrounds the space, and knives forks and glasses clink amongst the tables.
A wedding is a happy time, surely - but a time for Stillness?
Oh yes.
The very smallest of still moments as a star-struck nine year old sees herself dressed in flower girl finery, satin slippers on feet and roses in her curled hair.
The moment of still when the bride shyly turns around in her dress and every woman in the dressing room gasps, their eyes welling with full heartedness.
The quiet stillness of a bride adjusting the veil herself, lost in a reflection that goes far deeper than the mirror's offering.
The moment of still as music stops, guests turn their heads simultaneously, a single beat singing out before they see her.
The stillness as the bride arrives at the front, stunning under a thin layer of tulle. For an instant, she is uniquely her, most beautifully her, and singularly transformed by her joy. That instant right there, she could equally be every bride through history - every woman who is absolutely certain of the love she claims as hers, there at the altar.
That brief second in the first dance, where the groom forgets his concentration on the dance steps and instead is completely absorbed in the amazing gift that is the person dancing with him.
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| I can't even describe how stunning this bride was, y'all |
Make no mistake: there are many moments of Stillness in a wedding. It takes a careful heart to find them, and to treasure them, but oh they are there!
Those moments of stillness - of concentrated joy and gratefulness - bring us to deeper moments of joy within ourselves, when we remember, or at least remember to believe in, the possibilities of a transformative love like that.
On a wedding day, deep in each of our hearts, we ask questions of love. Those moments of stillness? They are the answers.
2 comments:
this is a beautifully written post. i love it. my cousin is getting married in just over a month and every time i think about i think about the absolute antithesis of stillness! but because of what you've written here, i will be looking for those still moments while we are celebrating the new life A will begin forging that day with her husband.
And the bride's mother, in turn, sees the faces of people she loves and who love her smiling at the joy of it all. And remembers another wedding filled with beauty and "still", one very special niece's day. How long ago? Not long at all.
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