I am a firm believer that every move we make helps determine our destiny and fated future. Every job you have. Every job you leave. Every contact you make. Every city you move to. Every visit home. Every friendship coddled. Every friendship dissolved. All of it. It's all connected, beautiful & necessary.
There's a web we are all building and weaving throughout our lives. A web that catches us when we fall, flings us into the air when we soar. An evolving web consisting of all of these relationships we've had, lost, reconnected with, started anew, etc. This web supports us and those around us, and it is during important times of change or a sudden flux in your life, that we notice who it's true members are.
At one of my showers before the wedding, my mom made a reference to this very web during the 'Sacred Circle' ceremony. This is a ceremony where these phenomenal women in my life, many of my mom's oldest friends who have known me since the day I was born, joined hands to produce an energy around my marriage with Jeremy and our new, joining families. It's a Native American ritual and is extremely powerful (Sara can attest -- she was speechless for the first time....probably ever :)). I'll never forget this notion of our 'web', of our community, we build for ourselves. It's so important...scratch that...VITAL to the very existence of my marriage and other relationships. Without this thickly roped web -- these friends -- these support beams --- our daily lives, strifes, conflicts, etc., would be nearly impossible to mend or even proceed through. You need these people. You need your people....yo 'peeps....in order to get by, and not just that, but to truly EXCEL in whatever it is that's on your plate at any particular time.
Your wedding, for instance, is a significant time of change not just for you and your spouse, but for your web. True colors are shown in those around you. Friendship hues are brightened and dulled. "Webbies" emerge and surprise the pants off you with their love and support and joy, permanently joining your web, as you join theirs in return. In retrospect, and still as a newly wed, this is one of my greatest observations from the entire experience. I have been able to expand some relationships beyond what was even imaginable a year ago. I've been able to act as a support beam for many of my friends who's hues certainly did brighten over the last 6 months, catching them as they've fallen or cheering them on as they've soared. It makes for a fulfilling existence. It simplifies things in an ever-changing complex world. That's what it's all about, right? Our relationships are what give meaning to this mess. They're what we stay motivated by....
This painting was produced by 6 friends, coordinated by my dear mother, as a shower gift for Jeremy and I. Six women from 4 different states, came together to put in oil and on canvas what our 'ecosystem' looks like in this stage of our life. Without our web and without our peeps, this canvas would be pretty damn bare and pretty damn sad, if you ask me. It serves as a daily reminder of those thick, rope-like strands of our web, even as I stumble past it into the kitchen each morning, half awake, one eye relatively open, reaching zombie-style for my coffee.So, thank you to all of you. You know exactly who you are.
Love yas.
-ERSM (& JARM, in this case)
P.S. I leave you with our 'aisle'/'here comes the bride' song from the wedding. It gives me so many warm and fuzzies about that experience & about all of you :)
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