Two dear friends of mine, beneath a cloth roof held up by beloved friends and manzanita branches, married. In their honor, as per their request, I wrote this for them, inspired by their union:
Kiss this truth.
The truth of where you’re standing, of the land you stand on,
Of the body that stands beside you.
A brilliant miracle that each of you, exactly as you are, chose this life in this form.
That you were born into pristine bodies.
Hands, hearts, smiles, feet that have dutifully taken each step you’ve wanted to walk so far.
Imagine, they are the same feet that walked both of you towards each other,
The first time you ever met,
And later walked you to the madrones and manzanitas
Who held you as you dove into each other’s hearts.
And now, now they’ve walked you to this specific place and time, step by step.
Kiss this truth.
Your choice of union.
Union bequeathed with understanding.
See, you haven’t mistaken union AS the other, you’ve chosen union WITH each other.
With the being who looks into your eyes and knows the potential of a lifetime.
The one who has considered deeply, alongside you,
How to stay amidst the mystery of commitment,
To trust the natural movements of all life:
Coming together, moving away, coming back together.
Kiss the truth.
That love may be two becoming one,
Or one and one remaining one and one.
Or, perhaps, it’s one and one becoming three.
Because there’s you and you, and then the blending of your hearts that becomes its own body spawned from possibility, grown into commitment.
And it keeps breathing.
Do you know this, all this, is a blessing.
You, as you stand here, looking into each others’ eyes, witnessed by all of us who love you,
A hymn of growth, of coming together, of developing and honoring love.
This unstationary, completely dynamic, evolving and alive merging.
As pieces of yourselves have been sacrificed, you’ve unearthed the sacredness of connection,
Learned to trust and rest into the repetitive coos of the other saying,
“Here I am, here you are, this time let’s stay.”
Your eyes have become dusted clean in this moment-to-moment, endless process of choosing yes again and again.
Your faces gently turn towards the inevitability of a mysterious future, now with the presence of the other by your side.
Kiss this truth.
This miraculous moment of the trees and the skies and the birds and the ground witnessing us witnessing you witnessing each other.
You stand, underneath this chuppah, a representation of the home you have already begun to cultivate, one that you can nurture and build together for a lifetime.
And in calling forth the pillars of patience, devotion, and compassion into this blending,
You make the kindest choice you could make for your own heart’s,
Saying yes to love.
Love,
Gavrila Nikhila
you are whole, complete, and perfect. 
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