Etsy and Weddings

I had the happy task today of sending two packages off to brides: one item, which I blogged about in my last post, was a blue bitters bottle in the shape of a fish, which a woman in London bought, telling me that she was putting together a collection of "posy" bottles to use at her wedding reception:

The other was for a woman who just got married and wanted these two heart boxes to use as a place for keeping their rings safe should she and her husband ever have to take them off for some reason:

In each package I included a wedding card, and since I've been happily married for 47 years--we just celebrated by our annual Anniversary Hike and Picnic on June 10--I said I wished them as much happiness as I've had, adding "May you love, respect, and cherish each other for the rest of your lives." Today there's so much in the news about love not lasting, about love eventually getting stale, and that's--fortunately--just not my experience. My husband and I were best friends before we got married and over the years our love and friendship have only deepened.

"Stuff" happens in life, however, and our daughter is now on her second marriage. Both spouses have to "love, respect, and cherish" each other day after day, despite differences that might arise, and sometimes priorities get lost or people change, and things sadly fall apart. I've seen this happen first hand. My husband and I certainly have had our ups and downs over the years, like everyone does, but we were fortunate to be able to ride them out together (we're still doing that) and today are blessed to see our five grandchildren growing up into fine young men and women. Well, two are still pretty little, ages 4 and 6, but there's a very tall 13-year old along with one almost 19-year-old who's just finished his first year of college, and a 17-year-old who graduates from high school tomorrow and will head off to college mid-August. We've always lived within about five minutes of them, so we've been able to be there for soccer games and concerts and all those other wonderful events parents and grandparents get to go to.

Anyway, because of these two packages wending their way to London and to Massachusetts, I've been thinking about weddings and marriage today, and certainly didn't mean to write a sermon in that last paragraph (I guess I did), but just want to encourage those newly married or about-to-be-married that things don't have to fall apart if communication is maintained day after day and the words "I'm sorry" and "I love you" are frequent companions.

As I was growing up, my parents would put us kids to bed and then sit down at the kitchen table every night to talk over a cup of coffee (how did they sleep afterwards?!) or a glass of wine (much better)--they never went to bed without talking over the day. My husband and I are just the opposite: we get up in the morning and get our coffees and then sit for at least an hour talking and then taking our daily morning walk. Granted, we have no children to get to school anymore and we both work at home at our computers, so we don't have to dash off by a certain time, but I do think that if everyone scopes out their day they can hopefully find even fifteen minutes to sit down together and talk.

Yikes, that's another sermon in the works, so I'll end with one last thing I've been thinking about today: the first thing I ever sold in my new my Etsy shop two years ago was to a young woman who wanted "something blue" for her new apartment after her wedding and picked out a blue and white Beacon Hill Staffordshire plate:

So I'm thinking about you today, Tara, and hope you and your husband are doing well. My congratulations to all the couples who have just gotten married or are about-to-be-married!