The BIG Change

Saturday, I don’t remember much of what happened during the day. Ramsey and I got together and went to REI to look at sale items. Several of the people who came for the wedding used Saturday to go site seeing. I sent them up I70 towards the mountains. The aspens were turning color and there was snow up that way too. Ramsey and I ate lunch at Wahoo’s and watched football. I took him back to his hotel and I went back to my house to do more packing. My last partner from work, Deb Weaver, had gotten very sick on my last week at Pridemark. She had gotten a kidney stone that had caused her to get septic. She was in the ICU for over a week. She had come out of her coma while I was gone, and I was wanting to see her. She had been released from the hospital while I was on my trip. I drove to her house and visited with her and her husband Brett. I was so happy to see her up and walking around. I only had a few minutes to visit as I had to get up to the rehearsal at Evergreen. Deb surprised me by saying she planned to be at the wedding. I couldn’t believe it, she had been in a coma in ICU less than a week beforehand. It made me happy to see her.

Everyone was at the wedding site from the wedding party for the rehearsal. It was a beautiful day. Wendy wore a pretty dress and looked very beautiful. We ran through the ceremony and ironed out all the details. I had devised a way to use my laptop, my stereo, and my ipod touch to do the music. I had asked Lisa to run the music, and it all worked great. The rehearsal dinner was held at Historic El Rancho Restaurant. We decided to make the dinner more intimate by just having the wedding party there. The room at the restaurant was just the right size, and the food was really good. We had a great time getting to visit. I had asked my dad to so say something, and he had prepared something to say. It was some good advice about being married. Chris also gave a toast:

Hi, I am Chris… and I have the honor to say a few words for Jason &Wendy.

Not all brothers are friends, but I am grateful that ours starts there and extends far beyond.

I must admit I do not have as strong of a friendship with Wendy, but I look forward to building it as we join our two families.

One aspect of my relationship with my wife is that we are best friends, as well as many other things. A marriage is far beyond a friendship, but also contains friendship in the relationship.

“A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.”

– William Penn

But marraige extends far beyond frienship, and it’s commitments endure even when frienships should end.

“Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of marriage above the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.”

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Letters and Papers from Prison

So here is to new friendships, the deepening of others, and to a successful marraige relationship that extends far beyond friendship between Wendy & Jason.

Wendy and I had gotten gifts to give to members of the wedding party. I had bought some knives from Spyderco to give to the groomsmen and the fathers. The knives were made in Golden, CO and I had their initials engraved on them. Wendy had bought some bracelets that she gave to her brides maids and to the mothers.

After the dinner, we all went back to where we were staying. Wendy and I both rode back together in my car. We had not had much time to visit since this had all started. I drove her back along Lookout Mountain. We stopped at an overlook and got to visit for a little while. It was nice to get to spend some time where it was just us. I dropped her off at the hotel and I went back to my house.