You are worth blue silk
and yellow roses,
garnets and silver.
You are worth ceremony,
celebration,
and song.
You are worth taking time,
making time,
slow time,
sacred time.
May you keep your promises.
May you honor your vows.
May you be in devotion
to your very own life.
This past week, I did the final vow ceremony for the Vow of Faithfulness class from WomanSpirit Reclamation (Patricia Lynn Reilly and Monette Chilson). There was an online version of the ceremony with the full class in the evening, but I decided I wanted to also offer my vows alone in a personal ceremony prior to the online ceremony. I wanted to be witnessed by pine trees and wind, sun and stone. I wrote more about this in some depth for next week’s Feminism and Religion post, but I wanted to share a few thoughts here as well.
I requested flowers from my husband and received them, yellow roses and purple lilies. I chose a garnet ring, years unworn, as my symbol of commitment. I draped myself in blue and purple silk and set forth through the trees, my heart alight with anticipation. I descended onto the slope and found my place between tall pine trees and ancient limestone boulders. I settled myself onto the carpet of brown needles and looked out at the trees. Sunshine peeked between the clouds and I listened to the thin trickle of water making its way through the stony gorge. The cool wind curled up from valley to softly sigh amongst the pines, to stir my hair and kiss my face with a blessing. I spoke my vows of faithfulness to myself, vows a lifetime in the making and living, watching vultures circle high above the pines. As I spoke, a wild turkey suddenly flew by in front of me, a great flutter of noise that momentarily made me pause my carefully chosen words and smile.
We are worth ceremony, celebration, and song–we are worth taking the time to honor ourselves. We are worth being treated as honored guests in our own lives.
