BLESSING FOR A MARRIAGE

By James Dillet Freeman

May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitement marriage should bring

and may life grant you also patience, tolerance and understanding.

May you always need one another -

not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness.

A mountain needs a valley to be complete; 

the valley does not make the mountain less, but more;

and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain beside it.

May you need one another, but not out of weakness.

May you want on another, but not out of lack.

May you entice one another, but not compel one another.

May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another.

May you succeed in all important ways with one another,

and not fail in the little graces.

May you look for things to praise,

often say “I love you” and take no notice of small faults.

If you have quarrels that push you apart,

may both of you hope to have the good sense enough to take the first step back!

May you enter into the mystery

which is the awareness of one another's presence -

no more physical than spiritual,

warm and near when you are side by side,

and warm and near when you are in separate rooms

or even in distant cities.

May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.

May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.