My Sister's Wedding

My sister got married this weekend so I went to celebrate with her. Mikel went with me--It was quite the trip.

Here are the things I liked:

Mikel and I actually got to hang out together all weekend! She didn't drive off in the car to text me 3 hours later asking for another 30 minutes to be tacked on to her curfew. I like the fact that she still likes hanging out with me (when she doesn't have a choice).

My parents made the trip down, bringing with them the chifferobe (not sure at all if I spelled that correctly-but it's a large piece of furniture that my grandma used for a closet). I like the fact that a parent's love never stops giving no matter how old you get to be.

My sister has her own house! She bought it with her own money and has decorated it beautifully. I liked that they have 3 "Dans" surrounding them--how fun is that? Three men named Dan. One on the right, one across the cul-de-sac and one behind them.

My new brother-in-law Steve. He helped my sister put the pieces back together, and loves her enough to say "I do." What kind of sister wouldn't like the man who loves her sister!

My neices. They are simply precious. Fun, behavin', honest and incredible survivors. I like them a whole lot!

Here are the things I pondered:

Making vows to one another in front of a very few friends and family members is much more serious it seemed to me than making them in front of a church full of strangers.
Hmm...

My neices stood with their mother, and their step-grandmother, their step-cousin, their step-uncle and their step/step-cousin. (At least that's the way they described him to Mikel. When she asked what that was supposed to mean, Kes said, "Well, it means he's hardly related to us at all!") Hmmm...

I sat next to my (old) brother-in-law at dinner (yes, he came to the wedding and the dinner after--special guest of the groom) and he made me a hang man's noose out of the straw wrapper (with a working knot!). He told me it was his only dinner table trick and that he gave it to me because his girlfriend had already seen it before. That was in response to me asking if it was some kind of wedding party favor. Hmmmm....

And these are the things I observed:

Love really does conquer all--all sorrow, all pain, all broken promises and regrets. Love believes and receives, tries again and one more time.

Life is full of regrets. And we're all broken people. But children bounce back. I think they have Tigger in them. They take life in stride, trust their parents and simply love the people put in their paths. They don't judge, they don't criticize and they don't try to figure it all out.

The more I learn, the more I realize I will never know. And the more I think I know, the more I realize I simply have not yet learned.

Only those who don't have a clue would dare pass judgement on others--for unless you've been where they've been, walked in their shoes, and collected their tears--you just don't have a right to go there.

"til death do us part..."