Blessings and Reflections, the right note

The Shehechechchiyanu Blessing

Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha-Olam Shehehchiyahnu vekiyamanu vehegianu lazman ha-zeh

Translation: Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive, and sustained us, and enabled us to reach this moment.

Often in interfaith wedding ceremonies where one of the couple is Jewish this Hebrew blessing will be read by family member. Not until a summer wedding in 2021 did the translation of this beautiful blessing strike all of us like a lightening bolt. I find myself whispering this praise and thank you prayer to the Divine and thinking of the couple who brought it to my attention. I learn so much from all of you. Thank you.

Reflection: (Thank you, Jeff Wolverton, for bringing this reading to my attention)

"Marriage," Meher Baba says, "is to be undertaken as a real spiritual enterprise that is intended to discover what life can be at its best. It is and opportunity for two souls to establish a real and lasting understanding that can cope with the most complex and delicate of situations. It is a medium through which two souls offer their united love and service to the whole family of humanity."

 

Reading: Blessing the Boats ( at St. Mary's ) by Lucille Clifton

may the tide 

that is entering even now 

 the lip of our understanding

carry you out

beyond the face of fear

may you kiss

the wind then turn from it

certain that it will

love you back

 may you 

open your eyes to water

water waving forever

and may you in your innocence

sail through this to that

Somehow these three readings strike a chord, the right note, as we switch from solo to duet and finally to a chorus.

This Cape Cod Wedding Officiant is feeling the March Madness

 With all this talk of bracketology and the madness of this March, with its wintery chill I am so ready for wedding season. I'm so ready for warmth and rings and flowery things!

 wedding at Wequassett Resort Harwich on Cape Cod

Promises and vows the wordless wows........Wychmere Harbor Beach Club Wedding

On bridges, sandy ridges beneath skies so blue we are all so ready to hear some

                                           "  I do. I do."

and bring on the utterly romantic kisses as you become Mr. and Mrs.

Chequesset Yacht Club 

Happy Thanksgiving: We Thank You Now for Love

 This Cape Cod Wedding Officiant / Celebrant /Interfaith minister wants to say thank you to all the couples who I have had the privledge of presiding over these past 13 years.  My life is so rich and blessed and all of you have contributed to this bounty of love. At this time of Harvest and Thanksgiving  we gather together to give thanks for love.

 We Thank You Now for Love   

 WE thank you now for love, the great miraculous gift of love.

For love in the body that comforts,

for love in the emotional body that delights, frustrates and instructs,

for the love of our sacred circle of friends,

for love in the spirit beyond all walls and wounds, bounds and ends.

  Love, we thank you for love, love that stirs and soothes us,

love that gathers us into all joy and delivers us from all brokenness.

Love that hears the soundless language,

love that imagines and dreams,

that can conquer all and willingly surrenders everything.

Love that brought us into our lives and love that will carry us home

to each other.

 Daphne Rose Kingma   

 

 Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Elopements on Cape Cod

 

This Cape Cod Wedding celebrant/officiant/ interfaith minister loves an elopement, especially at this time of year. Talk about intimacy and low stress.

 Just the two of us, we make it if you try, just the two of us by and by..... I have no idea exactly who sang that song but it comes to mind every time I get a call from a couple who want to elope.

I met with such a couple at Chatham Bars Inn last Saturday. They had come across the lovely photos taken by Stacy Hedman of the elopement pictured here. Stacy will also be the photographer for their upcoming nuptials in Chatham.

Sometimes Just the Two of Us turns into Just a Few of Us which in this case were both sets of parents: this made the ceremony so warm and supportive on this beautiful early December afternoon. That spot right on the water by the boathouse has a view of the sea with fishing boats and trawlers. Also, a dramatic stairway entrance for brides to process down to their groom.  I always like when the bride and groom, even when it is just the two of them, come in separately but process out together. Such a symbolic way of moving from one state to another- from not yet married into the State of Matrimony!

At a small wedding the ceremony is the wedding. The meaning of what you are doing becomes the entire focus.  The choice of words I use to preside over the couple becomes even more important. It is such a precious moment and  in the words of the great poet Wendell Berry, this world needs precious moments more than ever.

 

Update on Friday, November 22, 2013 at 10:23AM by Soulful Wedding Ceremonies

This Cape Cod Wedding officiant / celebrant /interfaith minister presided over an elopement on Wednesday at Chatham Bars Inn and I want to give a shout out to elopements.

   The Ravens, Rachel and Alex wed at Crosby Beach . They are an amazing blues duo. Joseph Geagan, now Artist in Residence at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica Venezia,  photographed them on that amazing March afternoon.

and  'Just a Few of Us' Ceremonies 

     

 Some couples start out with just the two of them but then as it so often happens, they collect witnesses including the darling innkeepers at their bed and breakfast, By the Sea In Dennisport      

And Dan and Dawn at The Seaside Cottages in Yarmouth

photographed by Julia Cumes

Cape Cod Chapels- Going to the Chapel and we are going get married

This Cape Cod Wedding Celebrant/Officiant/Interfaith Minister, had the pleasure of presiding over two weddings in Historic Yarmouth Port this past weekend. I have to say the chapel atmosphere is different and equally lovely to the outdoor settings we have here on Cape Cod. There is something more hushed and softly solemn in the best way about an indoor chapel.

The Kelley Chapel has a quality of  sweet silence, so cozy with the woodburning pot belly stove to keep us all warm. In keeping with the setting, Jenniefer and Keith chose the Quaker Vows and the Celtic Blessing of the Hands for their ceremony.

"In the presence of God and these our friends, I take thee, to be my wife, promising with Divine assistance to be unto thee a loving and faithful husband so long as we both shall live."

"In the presence of God and these our friends I take thee, to be my husband, promising with Divine assistance to be unto thee a loving and faithful wife, so long as we both shall live."

An excerpt from the blessing of the hands:

These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.
These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.
These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.