Weekly Muse

Time.

It's an ephemeral concept; fleeting yet slow all in the same breath.

There are days when you feel as if you've counted every minute on the clock. I find those days usually happen...at work.

***le sigh***

Then there are the days that go so fast it's as if they finished before they even started.

This past Friday was such a day.  For we went to a wedding Friday evening - an event so romantic that it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about the experience.

The bride - a very dear and close friend from work - spent the past 13 months planning the wedding she had been dreaming of since she was 7 years old (she's now 31).  I'm fairly certain that the time of those months, to her, definitely felt like they finished before they started.

She worked so hard on this wedding to create the perfect memories for her, her new husband and her family & friends.

She exceeded even her own, wildest expectations.

From the ceremony to the cocktail hour to the meal to the music - and every possible detail in between, this really was a wedding to be put in the spotlight.

The bride, never a conformist - walked down the aisle on her beloved father's arm to this song.  Knowing the story of the bridge & groom, this song is the epitome of their meeting, their courtship and their wedding.

And, I suspect, their entire marriage will play out this way every single day.  Because the love they hold in their hearts for each other eclipses everything around them - but at the same time welcomes you into that precious inner circle of beauty and truth.

And as they wing their way to their romantic (of course) honeymoon in a tropical paradise, my heart fills with gratitude that this beautiful young woman - inside and out - is my friend.

No - that's not quite enough.

She is a friend - we laugh, share stories, tell each other deep dark secrets.  And yet she is more - like a  daughter I think - she holds a special place in my heart.  One that has never been filled before.

Like a friend - when she got engaged I was giddy with happiness for her.  But like a daughter - I was so pleased that she found a man who would cherish her and treat her like the princess she deserves to be in his life.

Like a friend - I ooh'd and aah'd over the wedding plans as she revealed them to me.  But like a daughter - she made me so proud of her attitude about marriage, about her maturity and commitment to her childhood dreams to make this wedding the fairytale of her dreams.

Like a friend - I grinned from ear-to-ear to see her walk down the aisle.  But like a daughter - she made me burst with joy at her happiness.

Her wedding was a fairytale and she was the princess of every little girls' dreams.  The force of her personality brought it all about - and it will ensure that her life with her new husband will be filled with the richness of their love, respect and adoration for each other.

And me?  I get to be caught up in their magic.  And just thinking about that makes me cry again - in joyousness for their new life together.

And...as time goes by my only wish for this wonderfully special young woman is that her marriage is half as happy as mine is.

Because that is the true gift I could give her - the example of my own marriage to my beloved Oracle; the happiness we share, the compromises we make and the joining of two people into one life together.

Because 30 years from now, my beautiful friend will still be married to the man of her dreams and she will look back in wonder at how time...

...flies.

And it can be so much fun.