Well I’m back, quit moaning, after quite some time in the
grey miasma of what’s the point. I had
plenty to write about but then…the grey
mist of what’s the point struck.
Well there is a point and what has made the point and split
that veil of gray was a celebration that I was fortunate to attend Saturday.
Maybe I just missed it, but through my lifetime I apparently
didn’t know what a celebration was/is.
Birthday, a wake, an anniversary, wedding, Sturgis 2012 etc. etc. marking
passing time I had no clue what we were celebrating exactly until Saturday.
Saturday I found myself in sunny Central Washington well
into West Yakima Valley. My wife and I
were there to attend, what I didn’t know till later my niece’s wedding. Knowing that any family event involving my
wife meant a family gathering at least 10 magnitudes times my clan’s
gatherings. Actually clan creates a feeling of many while my
family’s reunion would only require a small garage and two card tables all
catered by K.F.C. because eight fraps [whatever] and four canopes [whatever]
and one bottle of sparkling cider wouldn’t make minimum charge of any real
caterer.
“How many people?” I asked anxiously.
“300 invitations were mailed.” She said.
“Why am I going?” I
whined.
“Because you’re the bride’s uncle.” My wife replied with a yeah duh tone.
Wait. Stop. Uncle?
How am I the bride’s uncle? Well
it appears that unbeknownst to me you aren’t only an uncle to your sibling’s
children but your spouse’s sibling’s children too? This put a different light on everything but
I’m still trying to count how many nieces and nephews I have.
I won’t go in to the details of the wedding. Suffice it to say it took place in a stunning
West Valley setting at the bride’s Grandparent’s home. The bridesmaids were lovely in their dresses
and cowboy boots as they led the bride’s two bulldogs[?] up the aisle and the
groomsman were built to not be reckoned with. Bride and groom rocked it, the ceremony short,
the food just right and I’m guessing a couple hundred people. The event was rife with all the elements that
create a celebration.
After the requisite wedding dances I started to pay closer
attention. Young, old, cowboy or
accountant were all smiling. Not that
stiff political smile at the company office party. No, young and old were smiling with happiness
and the optimism they held in their hearts for the bride and groom’s life
forward, and perhaps the smiler’s own life forward.
That’s when I realized everyone their were in the now. At that very moment in life all their petty
life pains to the chronic ones that border debilitating, were personally suspended and all energy was directed in
the celebration of life forward.
Thanks to my nieces wedding I’ve come to realize no matter
what we are celebrating even if it is only a mark of time passing we are celebrating
now and celebrating time forward. We
should celebrate everyday our time forward.
That’s the point!
Thanks Niece, be happy.
