It is the calm before the storm. White roses, hydrangeas and calla lilies crowd a tabletop awaiting final transport and placement. One hundred and fifty stacked place settings serve as a sober reminder there is a lot of work yet to come. Tomorrow, a thousand details will flow together in nuptial pomp and ceremony, dreamed about for years and executed to exhaustion.
There is an aura of anticipation riffling through family members who have gathered to share in the pot-luck meal, catch up on each other’s lives and review tomorrow’s details.
Woven into the hum of voices, and nap-deprived babies, come the mishmash notes of alto and baritone saxophones warming up. Grandfather and Cousin are practicing for tomorrow’s first dance between the bride and groom. Almost imperceptibly the disjointed notes align into the beginning of a melody.
I’m in the mood for love, simply because you’re near me.
The close harmony surges and recedes like an ocean tide.
Why stop to think of whether this little dream might fade?
We’ve put our hearts together, now we are one, I’m not afraid.
Calm settles on the gathering. Children stop mid-chase and turn toward the sound, eyes wide. Babies hush. Adults perch on whatever is close to savor for a moment what has brought us all together. Stripped of the ceremony and clothes, the flowers and food, — at the core, the very heart of it all — is love.
The time-tested love of parents who know better than anyone, the strengths and foibles of their child-turned-bride or groom; the steady love of aunts, uncles and cousins, unwavering and supportive even over long distances; the generous love of in-laws welcoming a son or daughter into their fold; the anchoring love of grandparents witnessing the birth of another link in the family chain; all gathered to celebrate the birth of a new love, two hearts that will grow — despite the uncertainties of the future – to become one.
If there’s a cloud above, if it should rain we’ll let it
But for tonight, forget it! I’m in the mood for love.
The frenzy of the next day will begin soon enough. Right now, certain of why we are gathering and what we are really celebrating, we linger in the love that binds us together forever.
Leave a Reply