Sunday, June 10, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
What A Beautiful Day
Yesterday we went to Gareths cousins wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and they're a lovely couple. The men, including my Gareth, looked dashing in their suits. Of course he looked even better when I helped him out of that suit, but that is another story altogether now isn't it.
After my marriage to Gareth in South Africa, I've never once wished we had done it any other way. I'll always remember the dust of the dirt road we walked down from our hotel to the marriage license place, the irritating flies and the scorching sun. I remember continously wiping beads of sweat off our faces, caused not only from the heat, but also from the nervousness of standing in front of strangers and expressing a desire to be together for life. I remember we each had a photo of our parents that we carried in our wallets and we took them out and stuck them in our shirt pockets so we had a little piece of our families with us.
As I watched Gareth dancing with the bride, it suddenly occured to me, that we had never had a wedding dance (nor a honeymoon) and don't really have a couples song. In passing, I mentioned this to Gareth and we started joking around throughout the day about what our wedding song would have been. I teased him that it would have been Robert Plants "Doctor, Doctor, give me the news" and he teased me that he would have chosen Westlifes "Queen of my heart" to which he got punched in the arm.
The joking on songs continued for awhile and then was forgotten. It was a long day of fun and when we arrived home I was more than ready to kick my shoes off and strip out of the suit. But Gareth stopped me and said "Uh Ah, not yet." I didn't know what he was talking about, so I just looked at him with a confused look on my face.
He started rooting through some stuff and then he found this CD and started laughing. He told me to come over to him by the stereo and he told me that after he first met me he couldn't stop thinking about me when I wasn't around. Which I found really sweet because he had never told me that. He said he did something back then that he had never done before and that he made a mixed tape of love songs that made him think of me.
As we both started laughing, he put the CD in the player and said, "I don't know if any of these songs will ever be 'our song', but can I have this dance?" I don't think either one of us could have had bigger smiles on our faces as we took each other into our arms and started to dance. So there, with only our cat as a witness we had our long lost wedding dance.
I'm happy for anyone who finds love they feel is true enough to stand amongst family and friends and express a desire to show the commitment they wish to make with each other for what is supposed to be the rest of their lives.
Yet I can't help but feel sad everytime I go to a wedding knowing there are still people around the world who can't make such a public display of their love and affection in a legal manner. Two people choosing to share a commited loving relationship, no matter their race or gender, can only strengthen mankind, not destroy it.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Taking A Moment
I remember on a visit back home in 2007 when I announced my decision that I would be staying in Ireland how we hugged and cried and promised that no distance could come between us and we would always be friends. While I have stayed in touch with several, there are an equal number I have lost touch with over the last six years.
As I began this journey I met my flat mate and my best friend Hamish who became like brothers to me. But now my flat mate is married with a child and we only see each other when we run into one another in the street or at a shop. Hamish moved to Scotland and while we talk on the phone, those phone calls, like the ones with my friends back in the states, are getting fewer and farther apart as we're both busy living our lives.
I still can't believe its been six years already. The older we get the more time just seems to fly by. Back when I made the decision to stay in Ireland, I was thinking it would be for a year, have some fun and have an experience I'll always remember. I never dreamed someone like Gareth would come into my life and change everything.
I was always a hopeless romantic. Actually that seems to run in my family, but for awhile there I was more hopeless than a romantic. Love just wasn't working out for me. A few times in my life I thought I had found the one, but in the end I think I loved each of them more than they ever loved me. Still, while I could have done without the broken hearts, I wouldn't change anything. Each experience made me the person I am today and I cherish the times I spent with each one. I think of them often and wonder what they're doing and if perhaps they ever stop to remember me. If they do, I hope they remember me with a smile at a memory of a fun moment we shared.
So I've decided to make a better effort to keep in touch with the ones I love. Life is too short, time goes by too fast, but not so fast that we can't find the time to share a moment of ourselves and let those we care about know were not only thinking of them, but that we love them.
The Avengers
Saturday, May 19, 2012
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