The season of love:

I got to spend most of this past week down south with my precious friend Meaghan as she prepared to marry her true love handsomeface manperson. It felt like such a privilege being behind the scenes of all that pre-wedding busyness -- and then to actually walk down the aisle ahead of the bride's sister and niece and then the bride herself.

Wedded bliss might signal the end of our epic Meaghan-and-Danielle weekends (usually an annual occurence), and I will undoubtedly grieve the subtle shift of things, but at the same time, I'm rejoicing for her and for the great man she has married. Lives change all the time, every moment of every day, but it's very cool to get to watch and observe one of those new chapters as it begins. (Plus, pretty dresses and 1938 Fords were involved!).

Added to all that was the fact that so many wonderful people came together to celebrate Meaghan and Geoff, and we -- the guests -- took advantage of the cool company to catch up with friends and family we see only too rarely. Love was in the air, and not just wedding-love!

Oh, Valentine's Day.

If I wrote a history of my love life, it wouldn’t be long enough for a novella.

I’m talking flash fiction here: less than a handful of kind and very quiet guys who paid some small measure of attention to me (sometimes without my knowledge). There was also the occasional bushman-bearded oddball who waxed lyrical about his model train set and offered to buy me Kentucky Fried Chicken, or the rural firefighter with a not-so-secret double identity as a blacksmith. But that’s not even a love life, really. It’d be more accurate to call it Varying Degrees of Interest.

Nevertheless, I love love.

I know that, for single people, Valentine's Day is supposed to be about tears and loneliness. I've had my share of both, but that's not all singleness is about. There's much more to it than that. Call me an incurable optimist, but for me Valentine's Day signals hope. Even at its worst, it's merely bittersweet. This day may remind me of a hope deferred, but it also points me toward the future -- a future that, whether there's a man in it or not, is drenched in love, because God is love.

I wrote some words about this very topic over at YLCF.org. I cried while I was writing this piece (a new first!), only a little bit because I grieved what could have been. Mostly, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for what is, and the half-aching, half-rejoicing hope found in excellent promises. Dear awesome friends who are on your own today, there is SO MUCH GOOD.

Happy Valentine's Day. I mean it.

In spite of everything...

In spite of floods that soaked Brisbane, upset bridal car arrangements, and kept some of the wedding party out of the state, nothing dampened Hailey's joy as she married Josh today in a beautiful old church in the city. Given the setting, their wedding is pretty much a historic one and I just know they're going to have the best story to tell when they are grey and wrinkled and small grandchildren are clamoring for tales. Happy marriage, you two! Love Him and love each other.

* * * * *

Conversations:

Jessica -- that's pretty much one of the nicest writing-related compliments ever. Thank you!

Abbie -- sometimes it's not so easy to see which lessons have been shared, so it's exciting when it does seem a little clearer. Here's to a 2011 full of grace and awesome fellowship with Jesus :).

Asea -- you are totally brave and heroic in my book :D.

Mr. & Mrs. Webber

So on the weekend, my littlest sister got married!

She was lovelier than a princess and the most sweetly relaxed bride I have ever beheld. The groom's face cracked into a gigantic grin when he saw her coming towards him down the aisle of the church, and neither of them stopped grinning -- or blatantly stealing kisses, for that matter -- for the rest of the day.

Lauren and James (with the help of their parents) put a lot of effort into building a beautiful and joyful wedding, and that's exactly what it was. My memories of the 12th of June 2010 will be forever tinged in sparkling candlelight and coloured with soft flowers and bright candy. ♥

[Thank you to my super friend Jono Sims for graciously letting me share some of his pictures here. As both bridesmaid and owner of a rather poor camera, I particularly appreciate getting to see these ones and share Jono's excellent picture-making skilz with you.]

Absence ensues:

Hello, you.

Since I am rather better just now at not blogging than I am at actually posting anything, I thought I would legitimise my absence and make it official by declaring a two or three week hiatus -- which allows time for the flurry of guests to arrive, the wedding bells to ring, essays to be completed, the flurry of guests to leave, and the ripples to subside just a little. It's only eight more sleeps until my little sister's big day, and all is buzzing in preparation. At the same time, I'm winding up semester one at uni and have five assignments to hand in over the next fortnight. These two, combined with the merry distraction of extra family members and guests coming and going, conspire to fill the next couple of weeks quite to the top, yes thank you indeed.

So I will leave you for just a little while (with this picture of Lauren's bridal shower cupcakes as proof of my love for you all) and return when the excitement begins to wear down -- hopefully bearing many pictures of beaming bride and triumphant groom. Until then!

PS. Three things: 1) my friend Katie has started a gorgeous blog -- What Katie Wears -- which will chronicle her fashion adventures. 2) I wish I was going to the David Crowder Band's Fantastical Church Music Conference! 3) I'm looking eagerly forward to the first issue of my sub to Poetry magazine arriving in my mailbox. Hurry, postie!

Weekend Journal XX :: I do and hello and goodbye

I've missed writing these little journal entries that trap my weekends in a virtual time capsule. They faded from my blog because Monday is a busy day and I often forget about blogging on the first day of the working week. As well as that, recording the small moments of my weekend feels sort of self-indulgent. After all, who wants to read the secondhand account of a weekend in review?

However, I'm returning to this practice because I've missed it. Growing up homeschooled, weekdays felt little different to the weekend. While there was always schoolwork and chores during the week, there was lavish time for fun, too. Now, the week seems to be about heads-down-tails-up and I crave the weekend with its Saturday sleep-in, its go-slow-if-you-want-to feel, its opportunity for friendtimes, and its freedom from everydayness. So, indulgent it may be for me, boring it may be for readers, but I'm coming back to my weekend journal notes.

Although it's supposed to be full Autumn by now, this weekend the weather forgot and, instead of pulling out cardigans and quilts, we went back to switching on the airconditioner and sleeping under full-power fans. Saturday found my mother and little bro off for a party which included a pig-shaped pinata and adorable piglet cupcakes, while Lauren and I joined the celebration at the wedding of our friends, Ryan and Charissa.

It's the fifth wedding I've been to this year already. And, although weddings are beginning to seem like a logical and standard regular Saturday afternoon event, the personalities of brides and grooms and families and upbringings and traditions combine to make each one something special to observe. One of Ryan and Charissa's fun touches was to give each table at the reception venue the name of a country and to include in each table's seating arrangements one guest who had a connection to that particular country. It was the perfect investigative conversation-starter.

Sunday found us waking all too early and driving to the airport to deliver mama and little bro back to Western Australia. You'd think we'd be getting good at this by now but goodbye doesn't seem to come easier the more times we say it. Happily, this time the absence is just for a month, and then, all going according to plan, they'll be winging their way back home to prepare for Lauren's wedding (#6 of 2010)!

Sunday evening was our church's kinda-regular acoustic cafe, a more laidback evening of church which includes gathering around tables, enjoying baked treats, listening to some live music, and discussing relevant stuff. What made this Sunday extra cool was that we got to enjoy it with Ruth and her two sisters who are over from the US. We chatted about the woes of enforced driving (let's hear it for the motoring unenthusiasts!), families, Queensland autumn vs. Minnesota spring, and attempted to keep one young church friend from falling head over heels in love with Ruth's younger sister. In the immortal and heavily capitalised words of my friend Carla, "We Had Fun".

Old friends and new beginnings.

I'm wondering why it is that the life-moments most heavy with meaning are the ones that are hardest to reduce to mere words formed into sentences. I have no answer to that question. I only know that, now I'm here with a half hour carved out for stringing together some words about my lovely friend Carla's weekend wedding, I don't really know what to say. I want to say that she was a magical bride, radiant with a sort of 1940s beauty. At the same time, she was thoroughly herself, laughing and crying and expressing her emotion in facial expressions as much as in words. Her new husband Alastair ("with three A's") was so very obviously overjoyed to be joined to this precious girl for life, and his tears as he watched Carla walk down the aisle to Pachelbel's Canon (the piece Carla had always vowed she would be married by) sparked a landslide of tears from a whole bunch of us who were watching.

The ceremony was a joyful one, full of worship and also a sense of festivity at the new beginning awaiting Carla and Alastair. And the reception following was sparkling with fairytale touches -- swags of linen hung from the ceiling, tiny white lights, glowing candles, and a profusion of pink roses. It was an overwhelming of the nicest sort to be amongst so many of my beloved New South Wales friends at once. The day was too short and the hall too full of excellent people for there to be much time to really talk and catch up, but it was awesome just to see them and to be reminded anew of how good it is to be loved by people who have known you long enough to see your flaws and to realise that you really take far too long to reply to letters -- and yet continue to be loving and kind and super all the same.

So, since I can't explain any of that in words sufficiently elegant, I'll instead point you to some pictures of the special day: Bethany's, Rachael's, and the wedding photographer's, all of whom got some gorgeous shots.