SeaHeart

- Glamourkin update tomorrow night! Last update before the wedding--a final hurrah, as it were. <3

- I AM VERY SORRY IF I AM CURRENTLY A LITTLE SPACEY WHEN IT COMES TO EMAILS OR TWEETS OR WHAT NOT. If you have something important to tell me, and I don't get back to you, I AM SO SORRY, PLEASE ACCEPT MY GLITTERY APOLOGY. Sparkle Wedding is a MAJOR THING, and since we're doing EVERYTHING FOR IT, my brain is on all sorts of little post it notes, and scribbled somewhere on walls, and sitting in dishes in thrift stores. Hopefully not in dishes in thrift stores. That'd be kind of messy. Either way, if I don't reply, please bug me again! It doesn't mean I don't love you--I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH. It means that I'm a forgetful person in general, and remembering elevnty BILLION things for the wedding has my brain stretched in delightful new ways it has never been before. :D /End Sparkly Service Announcement

- So, Jenn's fabulous entry detailing car shenanigans? I WOULD LIKE TO UPDATE THAT: WE STILL DO NOT HAVE A CAR. We have named our rental car Sophia. I love her, but I want Xena. /Could be taken so many ways

- Jenn looks ridiculously beautiful today. She's wearing the Boston t-shirt that we got from a street vendor for five dollars in Boston, and every time I look at her, I remember how excited she was that we'd found one (her Dad bought her one when she was little, and that was one of her favorite memories--I wanted to re-do that for her, so we found a vendor, and I got her a five dollar shirt. It sounds more romantic in my head, I promise). She's in such good spirits, even though we have five thousand things left to do and organize and get together, and some things aren't working out (LIKE NOT HAVING A CAR), but everything is just so funny at this point, and I love her so much, and none of the STUFF matters. It's all about my amazing fiancee, and the fact that IN ALMOST ONE WEEK, I WILL BE LEGALLY MARRYING HER~ <33333333333333333333333

- I'm reading Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Spiritual Memoir by Elizabeth J. Andrew, about finding faith, love and acceptance for her bisexuality in the Unitarian church, and it's just beautiful beyond description. I keep wishing it wasn't a library book, because five thousand things would be underlined. So deeply recommended.

- We found crayons at OfficeMax for ten cents a pack. Jenn's most-favorite-idea-but-would-probably-never-be-able-to-happen thing about the wedding will actually be able to happen now. But I can't tell you what it is. :D /Sneaky

- IN CONCLUSION, I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS IMAGE THAT THE LOVELY LAURA PHOTOSHOPPED FOR OUR WEDDING.

image by galateadia

On Sunday, Jenn and I became Unitarian Universalists--we officially became members of and joined our church--Pullman Memorial Universalist. <3

~*~

It has taken me many years to create my chosen family. I have the absolute blessing and utter privelege to be surrounded by shining souls, souls that are inherently beautiful, deeply good, innately splendid. I love my soul family, my brothers and sisters, with my entire heart. I love them without condition, and they love me, too. I believe in them with my whole being, and they believe in me. They remind me what I'm capable of creating when I've lost my way, and I do my absolute best to show them how precious they are.

It has taken me a lifetime to build this precious family. I would not trade one second of the heartbreak and heartache I have journeyed through in order to find them, because I'm here, now, and I am blessed to live in a house of love.

I know what it's worth. I know its value. I know the trials and tribulations that you must go through in life to find it. It's irreplacable and unable to be duplicated...

So, then, imagine my surprise. Imagine my surprise when I wandered into the halls of a new place, a precious, old sanctuary. I was wary, but hopeful. I knew I'd have to prove myself--doesn't everyone? I knew it'd take years to shape the love I wanted from a place of faith, but I was ready and willing to work, I was ready and willing to love without love until it blossomed. I was ready and willing to work for the love.

I came into that place, and I was greeted with embraces. Those aspects of myself that I have had to fight for, over and over and over again in this life, to be treated with dignity and respect and love were things that the sanctuary's people embraced. They loved me not "in spite of," but because of. They didn't blink when I told them I was getting married to a woman, that I loved her with my whole heart, that I loved the Goddess, that I was a Witch. They hugged me close, and they told me "welcome," and "you're safe here," and "we're so glad you're here."

They told me "you are needed," "you are precious," "you are part of us, and we are part of you."

Imagine my surprise when I was greeted with enthusiasm when I brought up hesitant ideas my very first day. Imagine my surprise when what I said was listened to, when I was told that I had worth, even though I'd just arrived.

The people there have an easy sense of humor. They're intelligent beyond belief. They are warm and friendly and hospitable and ridiculously wonderful. They're the type of people who top off your coffee and worry about you getting home safely and want to know all the details about your lesbian wedding. Within five minutes of introduction, they're laughing with you like they've known you forever.

...They're Unitarian Universalists.

I have never felt so safe, so nurtured, so part of a community than I have in our weeks at Pullman Memorial Universalist Church, and I have been to many, many spiritual gatherings, camps, seminars, circles. When Jenn and I walk through those beautiful, arched doors each Sunday morning, we're greeted like we're part of a family of faith.

Because we are.

Last Sunday, Jenn and I lit our two candles from the chalice. Our pastor, Lee, with a wide grin welcomed us into the church. "You are part of us, and we are part of you," he said, the entire congregation repeating the words. Afterward, we held warm cups of coffee and tea in the beautiful, expansive hall that will house the joyous beings who come to celebrate our wedding. Jenn and I measured the walls (again), talking to Bill about rainbow banners and unicorn decorations, laughing over little things, strawberry jelly (you would have had to be there), leaving after hugs were exchanged, talking about the book club...

To the sunny parking lot across the street where a dead car waited for us.

"I have jumper cables," said Lee, taking off his tweed jacket, rolling up his sleeves. And, in minutes, the car miraculously started.

I suppose you could be scientific and say: it started because the battery gave it life. I'd rather be sentimental:

I'd asked the Goddess: I feel lonely, spiritually. My priestess friends, my witch loves, my coven sisters are so far from me. I need something here. I need something now. Please. ...Please?

And the gay marriage bill was passed, and the wedding was arranged, and the little drive through the country that fateful Sunday, many months ago, found a beautiful little church in the middle of nowhere, with a family waiting for us.

The car totally started on the love of community and Unitarian Universalist Awesome.

(With maybe a LITTLE bit of help from the battery.)