(written for the wedding of two friends)

When love takes our hand, it is often not what we are expecting. Where we might have imagined trumpets, instead we find quietness. Where we might have foreseen great churnings, instead we get a beautiful stillness. Where we might have expected an all-consuming longing for the one we love to be with us night and day, instead we discover the simple knowledge that they are always with us, no matter how many miles of ocean lie between.

This is not to say love presents us with a smooth and easy path. It changes as it evolves and at times may appear to shift and slip out of sight. But true love is seldom lost completely, merely obscured by our surface concerns. And when it emerges once more, we experience a sense of being that is beyond rational thought and yet more immediate, valid and life affirming than anything we can reason to be true.

Love supports us, sustains us and brings us closer to who we really are. It is not merely an emotion, but a deep form of knowing.

Love is why we are here today.