Words have always been very important to me. I find intense beauty and reflection in their cases of shape, their echos of spoken sound…
When Mr Visionary & I got married, we had a traditional jewish ceremony. Now, I never really blog about this, but I am not really a religious individual, and I am also new to judaism, and so though it was beautiful, and part of our new life together, I did not get very emotional at the time. It did not feel as though I was ‘married’ despite my white dress etc… as I think I was unfamiliar with the words I spoke… I was not reciting vows that resonated with my past experience and internal emotional understanding of the moment.
Last night, here in Jerusalem, we had a little party for all the family and friends that were unable to make our ceremony in Sydney. Very spontaneously and slightly chaotically we said hi to guests, tried to figure out where to sit, and for a lark really, thought we’d say some trraditional english vows, to give the community here some ‘wedding’ too. I had said that I’d like to say it in my words, that is, the words I have internalised from years of english weddings, films and novels…
And it was funny really. We were in a restaurant, I was shy of the audience, unfamiliar of a lot of the language spken prior, and Mr Visionary’s brother stood up and ‘played rabbi’ for us, as in english we spoke the words…
I imagine you’re as familiar with them as I am -
I,_, take you_, to be my…
Despite the hilarity and shyness and so much else going on.. I surprised myself when I could barely get the words out through my tears… it felt… potent and fragile to me. To say out loud, to my husband, that though it all I would be with him…”till death do us part”.
The sentiment of those words being said, out loud with an exchange of rings resonated deeply with my understanding of marriage. The countless witness to them I have born to them being spoken, the many times I have thought of saying them, stood behind us, and quite honestly, it felt as serious a vow as I had taken on the more serious occasion.
It made me think how words are not mere shapes, sounds or symbols… but rather powerful lockets of meaning, heart and human history. Words carry inside them the rhythm of our internal understandings of the world… eternities of love, scores of past dreams, moments and intention… they echo that which we have held inside them, and have the ability to transport all off this into a moment through mere thought or mention of them out loud…
My cute Mr Visionary, not a native englishman, first called our vows ‘vowels’, which we chuckle over now, us standing there stating ‘a e i o u’ but somehow he was right too. Sounds spoken to create language was exactly what we did… Each vowel held inside it an echo of the past mixed with a very present, honest experssion of love and intention of forever.
I have someone to have and to hold. In sickness and in health,
till death do us part.
Isn’t that something…?
thea.
xx
