There Was Joy

Our wedding was an absolute, amazing, constant outpouring of love and joy. I have never felt such an intensity of celebration in my life.


That whole "best day of my life thing"? It's about the joy. It's phenomenal.

{photos from a friend}

There was joy in the eyes of my new husband. Joy in the arms as our family and friends wrapped their arms around us over and over again. Joy in the laughter, and joy intertwined in the bittersweet moments. "Joy" was the title of the beautiful homily my uncle wrote and read at our ceremony, and also the name of the poem he read to us:

JOY by Carl Sandburg

Let a joy keep you.
Reach out your hands
And take it when it runs by,
As the Apache dancer
Clutches his woman.
I have seen them
Live long and laugh loud,
Sent on singing, singing,
Smashed to the heart
Under the ribs
With a terrible love.
Joy always,
Joy everywhere--
Let joy kill you!
Keep away from the little deaths.

 

{Our second kiss as husband and wife!}

Photo by Carmen Nauseef via iPhone

The joy we experienced on our wedding day is the kind of emotion I hope we experience over and over again throughout our marriage. It was the best.