Saturday, March 14, 2009
My beloved Roger and I have had an amazing eleven and a half years together and we felt it was time to celebrate our union. It was a very small gathering of close friends to give thanks for the abundant blessings in our life together. We booked two seaside cottages at Diggers Camp - a small village two hours north of Coffs Harbour with dirt roads, no mains electricity, no phone or tv reception. It was a delightfully hot summers weekend. Great for being by the beach!

During the weekend we had lots of time for talking, laughing, swimming, eating sumptuous food and sharing. We had contacted everyone prior to the event with an outline of what the weekend would include as this was not to be your usual 'wedding' celebration.

After a beautiful meal on Friday evening we discussed 'what is marriage/union?'.  This was a great discussion with many inspiring insights beyond the legal definition of 'the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others voluntarily entered into for life'. My next blog will share those precious thoughts!

Deb shared, 'Marriage - an opportunity to discover one's Self as you awake to the face that greets you. Love always present, always there.'

On Saturday we took some time with the men and women apart discussing what qualities, as men and women, we bring into our relationship. This was revealing and once again, inspiring. Then my beautiful  'bridesmaids' truly pampered me in preparation for the afternoon's ceremony. The ceremony was a a very simply sharing of all that we loved and appreciated about each other and honouring our journey, the ups and the downs. It was truly magical. We shared, yet again some more delicious food together and followed this with a shared concert since we have lots of talent in our small group. There was theatre and song... and there was laughter.

Sunday was for walking along the beach, sharing a yummy lunch and music. Dave and Libby wrote and played a beautiful song for us.

We were overwhelmed with the depth of feeling it invoked in all of us. To come together and celebrate sacred union - in all its guises, colours and feelings.
We clearly realised that Sacred Union is a community affair - and value the support and love that our family and friends uphold us with. Relationship is always changing and moving in and out of rhythm and form. We wanted to celebrate our difficult and easy times, and appreciate the enormous Grace we have both felt holds us in its arms. We have probably spent as much time 'sitting in the fire' that relationship, expectation and hidden dreams fuels, as basking in the sheer joy of sharing a life together.

We are now planning another celebration for my family over Easter... I will keep you posted.