Little Gifts containing Big Ideas

Courtesy of A World of Ways to Say “I Do” by Noah Benshea and Jordan Benshea

Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to love. –Virgil

If love were what the rose is, and I were like the leaf, our lives would grow together in sad and singing weather. –Algernon Charles Swinburne

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods. –Plato

Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach of every hand. –Mother Teresa

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other all gladness, to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories? --George Eliot

In marriage, every day you love, and every day you forgive. It is an ongoing sacrament, love and forgiveness. –Bill Moyers

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude. –Ranier Maria Rilke

There is no remedy for love but to love more. –Henry David Thoreau

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love. –Goethe

Immature love says, “I love you because I need you.” Mature love says, “I need you because I love you.” –Erich Fromm

Life has taught me that love does not consist of gazing at each other but looking outward together in the same direction. –Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The best portion of a good man’s life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts, of kindness and love. –William Wordsworth

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thought creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. –Lao-Tzu

Photo courtesty of John Mazlish

Love is Enough

Love is enough: though the World be a-waning,
And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,
though the sky be too dark for dim eyes to discover
The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,
Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder
And this day draw a veil over all deeds passed over,
Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter;
The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter
These lips and these eys of the loved and the lover

In the Month of May

In the month of May when all leaves open,
I see when I walk how well all things
lean on each other, how the bees work,
the fish make their living the first day.
Monarchs fly high; then I understand
I love you with what in me is unfinished.

I love you wish what in me is still
changing, what has no head or arms
or legs, what has not found its body
And why shouldn't the miraculous,
caught on this earth, visit
the old man alone in his hut?

And why shouldn't Gabriel, who loves honey,
be fed with our own radishes and walnuts?
And lovers, tough ones, how many there are
whose holy bodies are not yet born.
Along the roads, I see so many places
I would like us to spend the night.

  --Robert Bly

The Dance

I would have each couple turn,
join and unjoin, be lost
in the greater turning
of other couples, woven
in the circle of a dance,
the song of long time flowing.

over them, so they may return,
turn again in to themselves
out of desire greater than their own,
belonging to all, to each
to the dance, and to the song,
that moves them through the night.

What is fidelity?  To what
does it hold The point
of departure, or the turning road
that is departure and absence
and the way home?  What we are
and what we were once

are far estranged.  For those
who would not change, time
is infidelity.  But we are married
until death, and are betrothed
to change.  By silence, so,
I learn my song.  I earn

my sunny fields by absence, once
and to come.  And I love you
as I love the dance that brings you
out of the multitude
in which you come and go.
love changes, and in change is true.

  --Wendell Berry

The Peace: A Wedding Song

It's time to say words of good omen
And to bring for the bridegroom and bride,
It's time for us to take torches and dance and rejoice.
We can take the farm tools back to the fields
after we've danced and poured wine and chased out bad luck
And after we've prayed to the gods of earth, sea, and sky
to help us to an ample life,
To grant us a good crop of barley
And plenty of wine
And figs to munch on,
and that we bring forth children, supple-limbed, loud as their play,
And that all the good things we lose by war
Are returned to us when we gather ripe fruit for the wedding feast
And the fiery sword has been put away.

  --Aristophanes

Re-statement of Romance

The night knows nothing of the chants of night.
It is what it is as I am what I am:
And in perceiving this I best perceive myself

And you.  Only we two may interchange
Each in the other what each has to give.
Only we two are one, not you and night,

Nor night and I, but you and I, alone,
So much alone, so deeply by ourselves,
So far beyond the casual solitudes,

That night is only the background of our selves,
Suprememly true each to its separate self,
In the pale light that each upon the other throws.

  --Wallace Stevens

This love is as good
as oil and honey to the throat,
as linen to the body,
as fine  garments to the gods,
as incense to worshippers
when they enter in,
as the little seal-ring
to my finger.
It is like a ripe pear
in a man's hand,
it is like the dates
we mix with wine,
it is like the seeds
the baker adds to bread.
We will be together
even when old age comes.
And the days in between
will be food set before us,
dates and honey, bread and wine. 

To My Wife

If we were to multiply the love of mankind,
The love that was, and is, and will be,
It would be pitch black...My love is bright as day...
People have not yet experienced this feeling.

If we were to bring down all the stars from heaven,
All the suns of the heavens of the universe,
My love would burn brighter than
All the suns for a millennium of centuries....

If we were to gather all the flowers of all the planets,
That the wind rocks at dawn,
The smell of my love would be stronger than
The perfume of all the flowers through eternity...

From which star did you fall down here,
My comapnion, my dear friend, my wife?
Brighten my life, brighten it always,
You are the only one above all stars.

  --Volodymyr Sosiura

She Sings

She sing - and every impulse of her heart
She pours into those notes that she prolongs,
And all the burning diction of her songs
Flames with fire of passion and of art.

She sings - and youthful eyes with ardent zeal
Under her brows shine forth, than starts more bright...
How much of dauntless hope is in their light,
How many dreams of rapture they reveal!

Let her sing, and let her songs beguile,
And let those eyes of hers both flash and smile,
And let the fire of love within them blaze!

Yet, let her sing! Since for no second time
The golden spring will blossom thus sublime
And from her soul burst forth in vocal praise!

  --Boris Hrinchenko

A green grove
A clear brook
On the green maple tree
A singing nightingale.

A maiden by the brook
Made two crowns
And her white hand
Let them go on the water.

One is made of periwinkle,
The other of ruta;
One crown is for the Kozak,
The other for her.

:Go crown of periwinkle
Down to the bank;
Come back to my beloved from Ukraine
Take me into your arms.

When will you, crown of periwinkle
Reach the other bank?
When will you, my beloved Kozk
Come back from Ukraine?"

The dove cooed
In the grove, right in the middle;
And a strangely sad feeling
Overtook the maiden.

"In Ukraine, on the grave
The guelder-rose bloomed
There, your kozak is resting
My dear orphan child.

When the waters which passed here
Seven years ago, come back
Then will your dear Kozak
Come back from the Ukraine."

  ---Jakiv Holovats'kyi

Aboriginal Australian Song

The tongues of the lightning Snakes flicker and twist, one to the other.
They flash across the foliage of the cabbage palms.
Lightning flashes through the clouds with the flickering tongues of the
          snakes.
It is always there, at the wide expanse of water, at the place of the
          sacred tree.
All over the sky their tongues flicker, above the place called Rising
          Clouds, the place called Standing Clouds.
All over the sky tongues flickering and twisting.
They are always there at the camp by the wide expanse of water.
All over the sky the tongues flicker: at the place called Two Sisters
          where the guardian ancestors are.
Lightning flashes through the clouds, flash of the Lightning snake.
Its blinding flash lights up the cabbage palms,
Gleams on the cabbage palms on the shining leaves.

Ukrainian Love Proverbs

Love can be neither bought nor sold.

Ancient love does not rust.

A kiss tells more than a whole book.

Wealth begins with a wife.

A woman without her mate is like borshch without bread.

Who loves well is ready to forgive.

The road to a heart is only known by another heart.

A good wife and good health are two most precious assets.

If a man could survive without a woman, God would not have created Eve.

You cannot hide light or love.

A beautiful bride brightens the home.

Love understands all languages.

The eye runs to what is dear to the heart.

You Know How the Linden Tree Whispers..... (Ukrainain Love Poem)

You know how the linden tree whispers
In the springtime, at night, by the light of the moon?
          My love sleeps, my love sleeps,
          Let's go and wake her up, kiss her eyes.
          My love sleeps...
You heard because of the way the linden tree whispers.

Do you know how the old grove sleeps?
It sees everything, even through the fog.
          Here is the moon, here are the stars, the nightingales...
          "I am yours," overheard the old grove.
          And those nightingales...
Well! You already know, how the old grove sleeps! 

--Pavlo Tychyna

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Excerpt from the I Ching

When two people are at one
in their inmost hearts,
they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other
in their inmost hearts,
their words are sweet and strong,
like the fragrance of orchids.

Hesitation

In darkness, you held my hand,
You hesitated, nor did I move.
I said nothing as words remained in my throat.
And a breeze made me shiver slightly.

A soft breath issued from our mouth; I felt
It pass through my body and heart;
I yearned to keep that moment forever,
But it fled without a pause.

Willow

Awakening spring; how many leaves!
Rustling dawn; how many branches!
Does she know the pangs of love?
Never a time she wouldn't dance.

Pussy willows aflutter--hide white butterfly.
Tendrils hanging limp --bare yellow oriole.
All-conquering beauty, perfect through and through.
Who would enjoy, just the brows of her eyes?

A Song of Chang Ching-Yuan: Picking Lotus Flowers

Essence of orchids in her tumbled hair, a goddess of
          spring.
She takes the swallow hairpin from her nape, lessons
          coiled tresses.
Under the willows by west gate, near the bridge at dusk,
Moated waters past doorways, dabbled, riffled flow.
A prince of rare talents, visitor to the imperial court,
Shell fittings on his saddle all a-jangle, crosses the
          spring lane.

Dancing effortlessly on an open palm, her sheer skirt,
Tailored green dress, best of the colors of spring.
Like wafting smoke embracing the moon, waist
          measure round.
Scent of musk and dragon marrow, how lovely,
          graceful she is.

Clouds like Autumn curtains brush the water --
         fragments of bright movement,
Dew-laden flowers in profusion, their fragrance
        stems.

One evening the west wind comes bringing showers,
 Searing, stripping bare the flowers, a melancholy pale
         red.
Boat prows sever lotus stems, but strands unseen hold
         fast,
For lotus roots, lotus seeds, preserve a mutual bond.
His heart is like the moon, a moon not yet on the wane,
Clear, bright and full in mid-month days.

Champion

O my love, you are a champion;
But let's play a game of chess,
My aim is not to win,
I wish only to lose you --
My body and soul,
Both in their entirely.

I Have

I have a thought
As I walk past you;
Like a mountain stream,
It's neither love nor attachment.

I have a thought
As I walk home;
Like a touch of aftergow
It's neither sorrow nor dejection.

A P'i-pa Tune in an Alley at Midnight

Again waking me up from a dream, a tune of p'i-pa in the
          still of the night!
     Whose sorrowful thought,
     And whose fingers,
Like a gust of chilly wind, a spell of depressing rain, and a
          shower of falling petals,
     So late at night.
     In so drowsy a world,
Are strumming of taut chords to send forth these
          disturbing notes
     To blend into the night in the deserted street,
     While a waning moon hangs on top of the willow tree?
An, the silver of a moon, a shattered hope, and he, he ...
     Wearing a tattered cap,
     With clanking chains on his back,
Laughs and dances on the path of time like a mad soul
     That's all, he says, blow out our lamp,
     She is waiting for you beyond her grave,
Waiting for you to kiss her, to kiss her again, and again

The Joy of the Snowflake

 If I were a snowflake,
Drifting freely in the sky
     I'd make sure of my direction --
     To fly, and fly, and fly --
There is a direction for me on earth.

I won't go to the lonely sequestered vale,
I won't go to the foothill so quiet and cool,
     Nor shall I loiter sadly in a deserted street --
     I'll just fly, and fly, and fly --
You see, I have my direction.

Gracefully I shall dance in the sky
Until I've spotted that pleasant place,
     Until she comes out to see the garden --
     I'll fly, and fly, and fly --
Ah, ther is a subtle scent of the plum blossom on her.

Then I'll count on my body being so light
Gently I'll cling to the lapel of her robe,
     I'll cling close to the soft waves of her bosom --
     To melt away, and melt away, and melt away --
Melt into the soft waves of her bosom.
    



 ,

Flower Dance (of Bingo Provice)

If you want to meet me, love,

Only we twain,
Come to the gate, love,
Sunshine or rain;
And if people pry
Say that you came, love,
To watch who went by.

If you want to meet me, love,
Only you and I,
Come to the pine-tree, love
Clouds or clear sky;
Stand among the spikelets, love,
And if folks ask why,
Say that you came, love,
To catch a butterfly.

An Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days,
     and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
     wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
     with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
     bring the best to you and yours!

--An Irish Blessing

Aztec Wedding Poem

I know not whether thou has been absent:
I lie down with thee, I rise up with thee,
in my dreams thou art with me.
If my eardrops tremble in my ears,
I know it is thou moving within my heart.

Chippewa Indian Poem of Betrothal

Oh, I am thinking
Oh, I am thinking
I have found my lover.
Oh, I think it is so.

Shoshone Indian Poem

Fair is the white star of twilight, and the sky clearer at the day’s end; but she is fairer, and she is dearer, She, my heart’s friend.

Fair is the white star of twilight, and the moon roving to the sky’s end; but she is fairer, better worth loving, She, my heart’s friend.

Apache Indian Prayer

Now we feel no rain, 
for each of us will be shelter to the other. 
Now we will feel no cold, 
for each of us will be warmth to the other. 
Now there is no loneliness for us. 
Now we are two bodies, 
but only one life. 
We go now to our dwelling place, 
to enter into the days of our togetherness. 
May our days be good and long upon this earth.

The Jewish Seven Blessings (Sheva B'rachot)

The seven Jewish blessings praise God for creating the fruit of the vine (wine); humankind; man and woman; the miracle of childbirth; bringing the bride and groom together like the first couple, Adam and Eve; the couple’s joy and the hope for a future filled with their joy, and the voices of their children. Usually couples choose seven relatives and friends to recite them. There are many versions, including this contemporary one:

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Source of the universe, who created the fruit of the vine, symbol of joy.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Source of the universe, who has created all things to Your glory.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Source of the universe, Creator of humankind.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Source of the universe, who has made man in Your image after Your likeness, and has fashioned woman from man as his companion, that together they may perpetuate life. Blessed are You, Adonai, Creator of humankind.

May Zion rejoice as her children are restored to her in joy. Blessed art You, Adonai, who causes Zion to rejoice at her children’s return.

Make this bride and groom into loving companions, just as You did the creatures in the Garden of Eden. Blessed art You, Adonai, who bestows lasting joy on groom and bride.

Psalm 1: The Book of Psalms, adapted by Stephen Mitchell

Blessed are the man and the woman
                  who have grown beyond themselves
                  and have seen through their separations.
They delight in the way things are
                  and keep their hearts open, day and night.
They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,
                  which bear fruit when they are ready.
Their leaves will not fall or wither.
                  Everything they do will succeed.

The Jerusalem Bible, Song of Songs 2:8-10, 14, 16a; 8:6-7

My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock,
in the coverts of the cliff,
show me your face,
for your voice is sweet
and your face is beautiful.

My Beloved is mine and I am his.
He said to me:
“Set me like a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm,
For love is strong as Death,
jealously relentless as Sheol.
The flash of it is a flash of fir,
a flame of the Lord himself.

Love no flood can quench,
no torrents drown.

Colossians 3:12-17

Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  Bear with one another; forgive whatever grievances you have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.  Over all these virtues put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect.  Christ’s peace must reign in your hearts, since as members of the one body you have been called to that peace.  Dedicated yourselves to thankfulness.  Let the word of Christ, rich as it is, dwell in you.  In wisdom made perfect, instruct and admonish one another.  Sing gratefully to God from your hearts in psalms, hymns, and inspired songs.  Whatever you do, whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Give thanks to God the Father through him.

Ephesians 4:1-4, 5:1-2

I plead with you then, as a prisoner for the Lord, to live a life worthy of the calling you have received, with perfect humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another lovingly.  Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the Spirit as its origin and peace as its blinding force.  There is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope given all of you by your call…Be imitators of God as his dear children.  Follow the way of love, even as Christ loved you.  He gave himself for us as an offering to God, a gift of pleasing fragrance.

Ephesians 3:14-19

That is why I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name; and I pray that he will bestow on gifts in keeping with the riches of his glory.  May he strengthen you inwardly through the working of his Spirit.  May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, and may charity be the root and foundation of your life.  Thus you will be able to grasp fully and with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, and experiences this love which surpasses all knowledge so that you may attain to the fullness of God himself.

I Corinthians 13:1-8; 13

If I speak with human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and, with full knowledge, comprehend all mysteries, if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give everything I have to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 


Love is patient; love is kind.  Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, it is not snobbish.  Love is never rude, it is not self seeking; it is not prone to anger; neither does it brood over injuries.  Love does not rejoice in what is wrong but rejoices with the truth.  There is no limit to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure. Love never fails.  Prophecies will cease, tongues will be silent, knowledge will pass away….There are in the end three things that last:  faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.

Romans 12:9-18

Your love must be sincere.  Detest what is evil, cling to what is good.  Love one another with the affection of brothers.  Anticipate each other in showing respect.  Do not grow slack but be fervent in spirit; he whom you serve is the Lord.  Rejoice in hope, be patient under trial, persevere in prayer.  Look on the needs of the saints as your own; be generous in offering hospitality.  Bless your persecutors; bless and do not curse them.  Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  Have the same attitude toward all.  Put away ambitious thoughts and associate with those who are lowly.  Do not be wise in your own estimation.  Never repay injury with injury.  See that your conduct is honorable in the eyes of all.  If possible, live peaceably with everyone.

John 15:12-13, 16-17

This is my commandment:
Love one another
As I have loved you.
There is no greater love than this:
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
It was not you who chose me,
it was I who chose you
to go forth and bear fruit.
Your fruit must endure,

so that all you ask the Father in my name
he will give you.
The command I give you is this,
that you love one another.

1 John 4:7-12; 16; 18-19

Beloved,

let us love one another

because love is of God;

everyone who loves is begotten of God

and has knowledge of God.

The man without love has known nothing of God,

for God is love.

God’s love was revealed in our midst in this way:

he sent his only Son to the world

that we might have life through him.

Love, then, consists in this:

not that we have loved God,
but that he has loved us

and has sent his Son as an offering for our sins.

Beloved,
if God has loved us so,
we must have the same love for one another.

No one has ever seen God.

Yet if we love one another

God dwells in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.

We have come to know and to believe

in the love God has for us.
God is love,
and he who abides in love

abides in God,

and God in him.

Love has no room for fear;

rather, perfect love casts out of fear.

And since fear has to do with punishment,
love is not yet perfect in one who is afraid.
We for our part, love

because he first loved us.

Hosea 2:14-16; 19-20

So I will allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak to her heart.
From there I will give her the vineyards she had,
and the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
She shall respond there are in the days of her youth,
when she came up from the land of Egypt.
On that day, says the Lord,
She shall call me “My husband.”

I will espouse you to me forever;
I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the Lord.

Isaiah 61:10-62:5

I rejoice heartily in the Lord,

in my God is the joy of my soul;
For he has clothed me with a robe of salvation,
and wrapped me in a mantle of justice,
Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem,
like a bride bedecked with her jewels.
As the earth brings forth its plants,
and a garden makes its growth spring up,
So will the Lord God make justice and praise
spring up before all the nations.

For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,
Until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and her victory like a burning torch.
Nations shall behold your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
You shall be called by a new name
pronounced by the mouth of the Lord.
You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the Lord,
a royal diadem held by your God.
No more shall men called you “Forsaken,”
or your land “Desolate,”
But you shall be called “My Delight,”
and your land “Espoused.”
For the Lord delights in you,
and makes your land his spouse.
As a young man marries a virgin,
your Builder shall marry you;
And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride
so shall your God rejoice in you.

Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) 8:6-7

Set me as a seal on your heart,

      as a seal on your arm;

For stern as death is love,

      relentless as the nether world is devotion;
      its flames are a blazing fire.

Deep waters cannot quench love,

      nor floods sweep it away.

Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love,

      he would be roundly mocked.

Ecclasiastes 9:7-9

Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is not that God favors your works. At all times let your garments be white, and spare not the perfume for your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of the fleeting life that is granted you under the sun. Thi is your lot in life, for the toil of your labors under the sun.

Ecclasiastes 4:9-12

Two are better than one: they get a good wage for their labor.
If the one falls, the other will lift up his companion.
Woe to the solitary man!
For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up.
So also, if two sleep together, they keep each other warm.
How can one alone keep warm?
Where a lone man may be overcome, two together can resist.
A three-ply cord is not easily broken.

Ruth 1:16-17

Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! for wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, your God my God. Wherever you die I will die, and there be buried. May the Lord do so and so to me, and more besides if aught but death separates me from you!”

Genesis 2:18-24

The Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.” So the Lord God formed out of the ground various wild animals and arious birds of the air and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.

So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up the place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said:

“This one, at last, is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

This one shall be called ‘woman’,

for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.

Seven Blessings, Contemporary Version, III

May you be blessed with love. May understanding bring a deep and abiding peace into your lives, fostering a love that is not only passionate but serene. May this love between you be strong and enduring.

May you be blessed with wisdom May you continually learn from one another and from the world. Together may you grow, deepening your knowledge and understanding of each other and of your journey through life.

May you be blessed with community. May you always be blessed with the awareness that you are an essential part of the circle of family and friends. May there always be within this group a sense of mutual love, trust, support and respect.

May you be blessed with art and beauty. May your creative aspirations and experiences find expression and bring you joy and fulfillment.

May you be blessed with health. May life bestow upon you wholeness of mind, body, and spirit. May you live long that you may share many happy years together.

May you be blessed with the experience of nature. May nature in her magnificence continue to inspire you and bring you a sense of transcendence. May the elements of earth, air, fire and water sustain and heal you.

May you be blessed with the fruit of the earth. This wine of which you will partake was produced by the earth and perfected by time. So may your bond here represented by this gift of the earth be likewise perfected by the time of your years together.

Seven Blessings, Contemporary Version II

Blessed by God whose name is Peace. May this marriage experience the peace of complete sharing and tranquility.

Blessed by God whose name is Unity. May this marriage find its sacredness in the commitment of One to the Other.

Blessed by God whose name is Justice. May this marriage seek the ultimate right and respect of the right of compromise.

Blessed be God whose name is Wisdom. May this marriage compose a new chapter in sharing each other’s tradition, husband and wife learning from each other.

Blessed by God whose name whose name is Unique. May this marriage be special in its dreams to be fulfilled with love.

Blessed is the Creator of Celebration. May this marriage be celebrated by this gathering and throughout the world.

We praise God, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Seven Blessings, Contemporary Version I

May your marriage enrich your lives.

May you work together to build a relationship of substance and quality.

May the honesty of your communication build a foundation of understanding, connection, and trust.

May you respect each other’s individual personality and philosophy, and give each other room to grow and fulfill each other’s dreams.

May your sense of humor and playful spirit continue to enliven your relationship.

May you understand that neither of you is perfect; you are both subject to human frailties, and may your love strengthen when you fall short of the other’s expectations.

May you be “best friends,” better together than either of you are apart.