Wedding Magic
An hour before our wedding ceremony, my dad told me one of the last things I wanted to hear – a storm was coming. Hogwash, I thought… My dad must be wrong because the forecast for that day was sunny with 10% chance of precipitation. How could a storm have materialized?
Sure enough, as I looked up to the west a huge menacing storm cloud hovered in the sky coming in from Green Bay.
The wedding party lined up to walk down the aisle and we all kept a watchful eye on the situation brewing above. When we heard the first rumblings of thunder, one of my bridesmaids declared herself the stage manager of this show told everyone we were starting!
Photo by Julian Kegel
As my dad and I anxiously waited for our (ten!) beautiful flower children to walk down the aisle, tornado sirens started going off at the golf course next nearby, the temperature dropped 15 degrees, and the wind picked up.
The scenes that were playing out in my head at this moment were ones of total wedding mayhem.
How was I to know that what was about to transpire was nothing short of a series of tiny miracles?
At the beginning of the ceremony, I believe everyone—the pastor, the readers, the wedding party—all felt the pressure of time. We better hurry before the torrential downpour unleashed it’s fury on the wedding party and our 200 guests.
However, just a few short minutes into the ceremony I forgot about the weather closed my eyes and entered flow state, a state of being where nothing exists besides the present moment. Every word transported me deeper into this state, and even when I felt a few droplets, the worry that I had experienced so poignantly moments ago had completely disappeared.
We made it through the ceremony and were pronounced partners in life with just a few misty droplets.
I looked upwards and watched the storm clouds that had been lingering above our heads simply and magically move away and uttered a silent thank you.
The universe is full of surprises however and the real magic was still yet to come. As John and I neared the end of the aisle, a rainbow appeared. Yes, a rainbow. One of those beautifully rare and ephemeral natural phenomenons that stops you dead in your tracks every time one appears.
Again, thank you universe, ancestors, mother earth, God, Allah, Buddha, Krishna…. Any and all of the above!
And last but not least, just minutes before ROYGBIV graced us with his presence, John had read me a line in his vows promising to always be my umbrella to take me to the rainbow. The man doesn’t waste much time!
It was truly the most magical moment of my entire life.
Thank you. Last one, I promise.
Now, I’m sure you are wondering: How does any of this relate to yoga?
Well, the one thing I really didn’t want on the wedding day was rain. It was the only thing I expressed any real worry about in the week leading up to the wedding.
Mother Earth decided to remind me:
a) I am not in control of external circumstances, only my reactions to them.
b) there are times in life, and in marriage I presume, when you will have to weather the storm.
c) sometimes you have to go through something you don’t think you want or something challenging to get something more beautiful than you ever could have imagined.
Ultimately, trust in the universe and the path you are on; it appears she has something better in store for us. And if we are able to breathe through the storm with grace, we might just make it to the rainbow.
Namaste.
