Ode: A Wedding

One of my best friends, Laura, is getting married this coming weekend in Santa Barbara. We've been friends for 18 years, quite a feat for two 23-year-olds.

This is a little something I wrote for the event:

Ode To A Friend On Her Wedding

You were my first friend,

And back in those days,

I took for granted the affect a person like you could have on a person like me.

Rather, I focused on the present—

The ballet shoes, and the schoolyard games,

And the days after long days we spent in our innocence.

We grew up slowly, standing shoulder to shoulder,

Comparing the lengths of our hair that hung long and low down our backs.

Comparing our heights, a characteristic that quickly changed.

Comparing most things;

And yet returning always to the same center.

We were lucky, or call it blessed.

We possessed families with foundations of rock,

People who taught us how to love God.

People who taught us how to love each other.

And you, my friend, were wise from the outset.

Your large, brown eyes looked so steadily and determinedly forward.

Like a tiny prophet,

God called you to great things; I could feel it.

Because as we grew, I saw that life was different.

Not easier, but our existence possessed a certain purpose.

Soon I watched you drift from continent to continent,

And learned that I too could see my future in color, in changing language, in a new horizon.

You taught me to be open to the world.

And now, after so many years,

I watch you become a person in love,

A person who is open to her own, new world.

And I thank God that you are ready—

To possibility, to two becoming one, to the future.

I do not know what I will find by the end of our lives,

And so I will just stay around for a while.

The journey becomes more beautiful

When a friend like you is near.

Congratulations.