My husband, Joe, and I provided the music for a wedding this past weekend.
We have been friends with this particular family for centuries. The groom’s father and Joe were boyhood pals, went to high school and college together. Joe’s mother worked for his father. Upon marrying, the friendship became a foursome because his wife and I hit it off. They had three sons who are friends with our three sons. And since you are, no doubt, getting the picture….it is easy to see why – when asked – Joe and I were more than happy to take the weekend and make the trip to a small Alabama town to participate in this family’s celebration.
I played piano and Joe played classical guitar. We had the best seat in the ‘house’ – (though it was outdoors) – as we were positioned just slightly stage right, adjacent to the wedding party. We began to play sentimental love songs to empty chairs at first. Then, slowly, people who loved the bride and groom and had come to honor them, took their places bride-side or groom-side as they anticipated the commencement of the ceremony.
We were gathered on the grounds of a Civil War era plantation – the expansive lawn ’all dressed up’ with white chairs, candles, flowers, and ribbons. My position up front afforded me a start-to-finish view of the sweet parade of grandparents, parents, beloved groomsmen and bridesmaids, little junior attendants, and finally – the radiant bride. The ceremony was officiated by two of the grandfathers – each full-time ministers exhibiting nothing but sheer delight at having been honored with the task of performing such a sacred duty for their own. It was lovely to be sure – and made even more lovely because of the long history we all have shared.
As I sat watching everything unfold – drinking in the faces, the words, the moments – I thought about Life. Sometimes my life feels like a big movie screen draped across the sky of time. The people I have known and loved are all players entering the screen on cue, and playing their part. We move together across time, some aging out and disappearing, while others continue to come on the scene either because they are born – or discovered. Many of us have been on the ‘screen’ together long enough to remember when there were fewer lines around the eyes and perhaps less gray hair. Yet, there we are – all together – doing this thing called Life.
Weddings, births, birthdays, Christmases, Thanksgiving Dinners, graduations, and even funerals are all markers in the script where the heart takes note. I like to call it the soul-cam – it’s a recording of sorts – a spiritual documentation of those moments the heart holds dear and stores in the ‘archives.’
This whole thing has brought to my attention once more the fact that Life is happening right now. The mundane things that demand our time, energy, and attention everyday are not necessarily the things we will recall with a pleasured smile – if we are blessed enough to be old one day.
It will more likely be the purposeful pauses – those moments that were decidedly recorded and stored away.
Maybe I am not the only one who needs to make room for more soul-cam moments – to look into the eyes of the people I love and tell them so, to study their smiles and the features of their faces, to watch them dance on the ’big screen,’ and to cut in and dance with them from time to time.
There’s an invitation extended by God to show up and live this life to the full. As with any invitation, your participation/presence is requested. Requested as in optional. The choice is yours – but let me encourage you to not miss out.
So…Accept/Decline – please check the appropriate box.
