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.

Crow Moon by Dorianne Laux

Crow Moon 

Tonight is the rising of the Crow Moon,

the full moon, the Supermoon,

when the cawing of the crows signals 

the end of winter, the end of skeleton trees

children with fevers, streaks of late snow 

on the bricks, first crack of in the frozen lake.

Crust Moon, Sap Moon, Sugar Moon

Worm Moon,Wow! Moon. Moon 

in all its windblown wildness, its long distance

somewhere, open as a marigold

in a skull's eyesocket hung by a shoelace

above the chiseled hills.

And we stand below it, don't we, young

as we'll ever be, no matter how tough 

our hearts, thick with scars, no matter 

how nervous we are on the earth's 

crumbling front porch, nothing

but a few keys in a pocket?

We stand there, looking up wondering 

which time it was when we saw this moon

before,wondering, if ever we might

see it again, crows in the black trees 

preening their wings, slicking them back

like teenagers in a '50's movie, sleek 

in their leather jackets, each one 

a feathered rebel without a cause.

                                     by Dorianne Laux

from "Sierra" The Magazine of the Sierra Club /Spring 2022    

My brother, Brian, and I both read this poem on the last day of winter 2022.  He in California, I in Cape Cod, my sister, Nancy, pointing it out to me in our daily call. Bri sent it to his siblings. It strikes a beautiful chord.

"Let Us Begin by Beginning " but first a pause

I remember a wise young woman on the Erin islands beginning a ceremony with these words. Not having written for some time now, I will take her advice and begin by beginning.

What a time we have weathered. "We thank God for having enabled us to reach this moment." translation of a Hebrew Blessing, so fitting for these times.

In September 2021, I attended a wedding officiated by the brother of the bride who I helped a bit. It was a Maine Magical wedding. The sense of place was like a honored guest for Little Deer Isle on Penobscot Bay was summer home to the bride's family for generatiions. The venue, Oakland House Seaside Resorts was elegantly rustic, the staff so charming and hospitable. 

On this last day of winter 2022, I pause, acknowledging the passing of another season.

As the poet Dorianne Laux says in her poem, Crow Moon, 

"and we stand below it, don't we, young as we'll ever be"   

We bid adieu to winter 2022 but as Cape Codders we know it takes staying well-seasoned and salty to get through the next couple of months. The end of  "skeleton trees" (from Crow Moon) won't come until May.

This "Stay Salty" photo is from a quintessential Cape Cod Wedding some years and kiddos ago. (What joy I get from facebook seeing the offspring of wedding couples. The "I do's" turning into "Look at what we did!") Beautiful beginnings of life anew.

Having weathered the storms of the last two years we are a bit rusty, more salty, well-seasoned and ready to focus on what is true.  "The love that you share and the way that you care." is a line from a Jamie O'Hara song that sums up what matters in the end. With endings having taken so much, lets pause, then begin anew by beginning again.  With love supreme, let us Begin the Beguine. -Rev Kate March 19, 2022

Starting Anew In 2022

Update on Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 3:04PM by Soulful Wedding Ceremonies

Every beginning contains an ending and every ending is a new beginning. Marking the passage from one state of being to another. Wedding rituals contain that essence of passing through a threshold, marking an ending as well as a beginning. Crosssing from this to that is no small thing. A breaking with the past to embrace the new.

I hope I am ready. I hope you are too,  are you?

Rev. Kate 

Sailing from this to that

Dear Engaged Couples,

My heart goes out to you all as we enter another phase of ambiguity when it comes to gathering from hither and yon. This reading by Lucille Clifton keeps coming up.

Blessing the Boats

“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 your back

may you

open your eyes to water

water waving forever

and may you in your innocence

sail through this to that