One autumn day, this same weekend, 31 years ago,
I met the love of my life….my best friend, my husband.
I in love with herbs and healing, coming from mountains and nature,
He in love with the Earth, healing and growing, coming from lakes and nature.
It was love at first sight….when we met, presence to presence,
eyes alight with quickening awareness and ease, all at once.
He a biodynamic farmer.
She an artist, striving for the spiritual mysteries,
in the fields and meadows of flowers
Which she picked and dried as a ritual of grace and beauty.
He caring deeply for the soil and the animals and the plants,
the sun and the moon and the stars and the encircling spiritual life.
Both in their individual orbits of time, of striving and searching,
dancing and plowing.
Coming ever closer.
He biodynamic. She organic.
He gentle. She gentle.
He mesmerized. She enchanted.
Until love began its beautiful movement of embracing.
She starry eyed. He heartfelt.
She/he forever entwined from that first moment of seeing into each other.
It is a love story that always was and always will be.
It lives in that stream of life that is always beating,
always breathing, always pulsing.
31 in weight and measurement terms is long for a relationship.
31 years in love is timeless, always new,
never-ending and only just beginning.
Long ago, yet not so long ago,
she and he met and life was forever altered by love.
A love that just keeps growing and healing and creating…..
The meditating farmer and the gentle maiden.
The eurythmist and the dancer.
Joined hands and began a new choreography of living together and
have never looked back because it just keeps getting better and better….
deeper and deeper, wiser and wiser, happier and happier.
This is an ode to the light of illumination and the rose-ness of beauty
A kiss to you for all we have created out of this love….
our relationship, our family,
our home, hearth and sanctuary,
our environments of financial support,
our adventures and friendships, and so much more….
There are no words in our language
that refer to endings or aging or retiring,
only growing and healing, as it’s always been,
only creating and loving, as it always will be,
only refreshment, renewal, and wellsprings filling our souls,
our imaginations, inspirations and intuitions,
with quietness, wisdom, an abundance of love,
and never-ending willingness to participate
in the place and mysteries of life, ever unfolding, ever overflowing,
ever reappearing in new and real ways…..
held within the hearts of human dignity.
To life and love and to living it fully.
I love you Rod Shouldice, she said.
She heard in her heart, the words most spoken,
I love you Jill LaBelle Sophie, said he.
And the world goes round and round…..