Two weeks ago they came – one by one. Cars and groups of people arrived steadily from Wednesday through Sunday. Today they are all gone. They began leaving on Friday with my husband and daughter being the last two to vacate the premises this morning.
It’s over. The wedding and family vacations that were planed over a year ago. The backyard is clean and back to normal. The gazebo is down and put away. The garbage is piled high at the curb. This cleaning up is a necessary ritual for me after a big event. As people began leaving on Friday, the sadness began creeping in and taking hold. Both Friday and Saturday were hard for me, then yesterday when the cleanup effort began, the sadness began to fade. I needed something to close the big event. Cleaning up and packing away did the trick.
Today it’s back to working out then working 10-1 in Mashpee. This, too, is another ritual I need to fill the void. It was clearly the best two weeks I have ever spent with my family and friends. The wedding was beyond my expectations. Sitting there in the front row, watching my daughter and her husband take their vows, with the sound of the waves lapping on the shore just feet away, a seagull swooping down directly behind them, and the sun breaking through causing the sky to turn a pink-gold was a moment I’ll never forget. It was a true Cinderella evening – the song played for the father-daughter dance.
I sit now, in the quiet of the morning, and remember that August afternoon last summer when I was walking the beach, talking to my daughter who was crying over the phone when I told her we couldn’t do a beach wedding on our beach. I remember talking her down from the tree, hanging up, gazing out over the water and flinging my arm toward heaven, saying “God, just take care of this wedding!”
That was by far the most powerful prayer I ever prayed, because man, did He deliver. Not only providing the perfect venue the very next day, but giving me the job (that I love) to be able to pay for it. Yes, it’s over and it’s sad – but it’s only sad because it was so perfect. That is my God. He is perfect in every way. All my life He has been there providing just what I need at exactly the time I needed it. Watching that ceremony was watching the awesomeness of my God in action.
And so, as another day goes by, I return to my normal life with a heart full of gratitude, and…I have written.
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