"something borrowed..."

"something old,
something new,
something borrowed,
something blue.."
- Anonymous

"i have something for
you to carry
with you down the aisle,"
she said to
me
with
wise eyes and
just a hint
of
mystery.

I'd been hurrying
between the florist and
the caterer
when I felt
the iron tenderness
of her
fingers at my
elbow
that day...

"come, sit..."
she
insisted,
this quiet sage
I'd thought would be
no more
than an admiring observer
from the
sidelines...just as she'd
been at every recital and
soccer game of my
childhood...
watching
as I let a gown of white
slide over arms
and hips...
a waterfall
of tulle and silk pooling
around me
like her
love...

but she was
asking...

and so
I sat with
her
while time
once rushed,
stood still...

and she
whispered...

here is something old,
from
oh, so long ago...

it is my dream of
who you
would be on this day...

I imagined you a stronger "me"
one who would say
"yes" to the best in herself
and "no" to all that
would
take the light from
her eyes...

and here is something
as newborn
as this morning's dew...

it is the wonder I feel
seeing you through
the lens of
his eyes...

I thought I knew you
as a babe,
a girl,
a student,
a companion...
but today
you are the
someone he looks
at just the way your
grandfather
looked at me...
a look like
that
will never
change...

now for something borrowed
I hope you will
take this
prayer...it is the one
I've carried with me since
the first day I held you
in my arms --
my daughter's
daughter..

"bless her with
enough love to banish fear,
enough hope to sing
when disappointment
looms,
and enough faith
to never lose her way..."

and finally
something blue...

may you share the blue
light of morning
in gratitude for another day together,
may you
know the blue of your
baby's eyes
the first time she looks into
your own,
the blue of a summer
sky,
the blue of the ocean...
and if you must know
the blue song
of a broken
heart,
of sorrow,
or regret,
I pray it never leaves you
where it found you...
but deepens into
a sapphire compassion,
a cobalt kindness,
the rich blue of
a life impelled
by Love...

this is
my gift...

something old,
something new,
something borrowed,
something blue...

my hopes,
my dreams,
my prayers,
my wishes...

for you.



"I carry your heart
with me,
I carry it
in my heart..."
― e.e. cummings