This Trust 30 prompt is from Bridget Pilloud. I am to recall (or imagine and describe) a point when I knew that I wasn't following anyone but creating my own path. A time when I felt wholly strange, new and most alive.
As my anniversary week nears conclusion, this prompt recalls my wedding day. I began the path described above as I walked to the chupah to wait for my bride.
If you were among the 100+ guests at my wedding, you would have noticed my mother's absence. My Dad died when I was 7, so from that point until I met my wife it was Mom and me. Whether she didn't approve of my wife or just couldn't let go, my mother didn't attend my wedding.
The decision to walk the aisle alone was my decision. I didn't have a surrogate parent and to just have someone fill a space... I was no less on my own.
My in-laws preceded me in the procession to the chupah, stopping halfway down the aisle, turning 90 degrees and facing each other as though guarding that point in the aisle. As I walked through my in-laws, my nearly mother-in-law took my hand in support. My in-laws weren't guards. At that my moment my in-laws were serving as greeters, welcoming into their family. I continued my path to the chupah. My in-laws waited for my bride, to accompany her on the last steps to becoming my wife.
I walked the aisle alone to the beginning of a new life. I was married and my priorities and responsibilities reordered with the marriage. As I walked to the chupah my emotions were 95% unrestrained joy and 5% "Where's the safety net?". The life altering decision to marry rearranged my family dynamics. This path was mine. The future was up to me.
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