The Wedding

There is a wedding on the horizon. It's making me dizzy! Sometimes I just have to stop and write down things. If only I can just write fast enough to get it all down on "paper."

The Groom
It's my son. My son is getting married...my little boy, my little blue-eyed baby. Goodness, but wasn't he a pretty child? In my mind he looked like an angel.

Through many tears, many of my own tantrums to insist on him becoming a man, many a spanking, many a grounding, many a girl I did not like but grinned like I did, through many a threat to "go right to school with you and sit in class until you pay attention and get your grades up" my son has emerged a man among men.

Oh, I know he's only 25, but I have faith. He's got a wonderful future.

You have got to have faith in your kids. You gotta know that the end is going to be great for them, no matter how trying the middle is.

You give them a vision of how great they can be, you give them a vision of something besides your own jaded views and you send them into life. You peep in on them while they sleep and then you close the door to their room. The next day with a feverish prayer to The Almighty you let them out of your sight the next morning. You do it again each day until you have learned what faith is all about...you trust your most precious thing to God's care. You let them go each day and into the the next several thousand days with only your faith to make you sane sometimes...life with a son is often frightening that they might not come home...but between my prayers and his grandma's direct line to God, he somehow made it past childhood to his engagement day and into the race for the biggest day of his life...his wedding.

The Bride
He's found a lovely young woman who looks at him like she loves him, like she believes in him more than I do. (I should add my belief in him is bigger than the universe. )

She gazes at him like she's the most fortunate woman in the world to be with him and she gives him reason to return that same gaze; that perfect gaze of true love. It's so fascinating to behold this moment in your child's life.

She gazes in a knowing womanly way and she does it in a wide-eyed girlish way. That's really good stuff. Seeing him mirror it perfectly is better.

I am so glad my boy is marrying a woman-girl with a beautiful figure, full of grace and graciousness, astute, aware, focused, and oh yes...did I mention the smile that rivals all the Mona Lisa smiles in the world? Girl, I am mighty happy with you!

His Parents
Well, there's me, and you all know about me if you are reading this. Then, there's his daddy.To you, my old friend, I want to say thank you.

We have become comfortable in our relationship, I love your wife like a family member. The boy blessed us all personally--not with his mere existence and the joy he brought us all, but he blessed us with a chance to build our characters. To learn to love one another because he needed us to.

Oh, we had our high old moments -- tense ones, but we made it. We are so much better because we knew this kid and he drew us together.

I think we actually all love one another as a result of it. We put the greater good ahead of ourselves. What is better to achieve than that in life?

We have learned to be more than concerned with only our own little small selfish worlds and we learned to be joyous in a bigger effort. M. you did good, I did good, and that daddy of his did a bang up job, too. In spite of all our own personal demons and failures, we triumphed in something far bigger than ourselves.

But, before I ramble off, let me say, dear father of the groom, that you gave me a dream. It was you who gave me the most important dream of my life...to see my boy walk across the platform of the best school in the USA (Texas A&M University). Without that vision, I might not have been able to do my part to make the boy's life get to the point it has.

You did your half, my friend, but because of your hard and fast vision, I did mine. I did not go to college...my mother and daddy did not go to college. Our boy was the first in my line to do so. You not only made his life possible, you gave me the vision to help him have a very keen, clear goal to realize. Gig 'em Aggies. God bless you for all you have given him in that way.

And, to my dear late G., it is too bad you could not stay here with us and share in this joy with us. I am still mad at you sometimes for leaving, but my dear husband, you did add to his life and you were a good role model he listened to when his dad's voice, my voice, and his step-mother's voice sounded like white static to him.

Yes, he did listen to you, and he still thinks of you. He said he is so sorry you will not be here, but I wanted to pause and thank you for your brief time with us and for what you contributed to the man he is now.

Her Parents
Don't know you all that well just yet; but, this thing I know: A special young woman is in my son's life. She knows what she wants and she's got direction. I know she'll perfect my son's compass with that true north level-headed sense of direction you instilled in her. My son has always had a good head on his shoulders. He knew the right woman immediately. Thank you for making his life complete with this fine girl you raised.

My Son's Brothers
You are so much a part of us, me and the groom...you also have made him and me better people for being gilded threads woven into us. Our family has made a peculiar little pattern in the fabric that is our history and life. But, oh you are so special to us. You are my sons because you were my step-sons...then legally, after you dad and I divorced you were no longer my step sons. That's when you became as good as blood to me. Our love kept us joined.

My head is full of stories about you. I will write about you on another summer night soon...on another night I am counting my blessings and hugging myself because life is so sweet these days.

To My Readers - The Notaries who tune in here to find out what I am up to...
Lordy, I don't know if you are a readership of one, or none, or a thousand! But, friendly readers, if you muddled through this far...stay tuned...there's more of this to come. Lots of thoughts to think out loud for you. Nothing too personal, nothing too negative...just a mother's pensive moments of good fortune based on the miracles of life and the never-ending hope which comes from having a son who has met and exceeded all of her expectations.

Thank you notaries, you are my muse...you are the ones who made me bold enough to write things I would let others read.

Goodnight, sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite!