Yes

I was moved to write this blessing for my friend, Rachel's, wedding in Sonoma, California, in 2003. -- KJ

Today you say yes to life, yes to love, yes to living, yes to the embrace of god, yes to delight, yes to the blessings and tribulations of union, yes to mortality, yes to immortality.

Today you say yes and we say it too: whole-heartedly, with compassion, joy, and exuberance. We say it with you and we say it to you.
♥ We say yes, we will rejoice in your union.

♥ We say yes, we will hold you up to let you shine and we will hold you up to bring you out of the muck.

♥ We say yes: we are your community, we are a small part of this chaotic, exhilarating, triumphant, sorrowful, unjust, inspiring, ever-renewing world which says yes to your yes.

I wish you uncountable mundane days of solid, confident love and I wish you abundant jewel days of love which take your breath away.

I wish you journeys where you meet each other again and again, glad for the companionship, sustained by the act of witness.

I wish you ever-fresh patience through painful moments when you do not recognize each other and have been persuaded by some malicious wind that you do not want to try again.

I wish you the blessings which come with children: humility, greater purpose, redoubled determination to make this world kinder, more just, and filled with contagious compassion.

May the Mystery which brought us here, the same Mystery which takes us away, and that very same Mystery which surrounds each breath we take – may this Mystery bless this day, bless this union, bless this Yes.