Lissa Chong

Wellington Marriage Celebrant - Celebrations of Life

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You are here: Home / Resources / Readings / Epithalamium – Adam Zagajewski

Epithalamium – Adam Zagajewski

Without silence there would be no music.
Life paired is doubtless more difficult
than solitary existence –
just as a boat on the open sea
with outstretched sails is trickier to steer
than the same boat drowsing at a dock, but schooners
after all are meant for wind and motion,
not idleness and impassive quiet.

A conversation continued through the years includes
hours of anxiety, anger, even hatred,
but also compassion, deep feeling.
Only in marriage do love and time,
eternal enemies, join forces.
Only love and time, when reconciled,
permit us to see other beings
in their enigmatic, complex essence,
unfolding slowly and certainly, like a new settlement
in a valley, or among green hills.

It begins from one day only, from joy
and pledges, from the holy day of meeting,
which is like a moist grain;
then come the years of trial and labor,
sometimes despair, fierce revelation,
happiness and finally a great tree
with rich greenery grows over us,
casting its vast shadow. Cares vanish in it.

Marriage and Civil Union Celebrant Wellington

Lissa Chong is a wedding celebrant based in Wellington, New Zealand.
Member of Celebrants Association of NZ.

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Celebrations of Life

Look to this day: For it is life, the very life of life. In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence. The bliss of growth, the glory of action, the splendour of achievement are but experiences of time.

For yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision; And today well-lived, makes yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well therefore to this day; Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!

~~ Kalidasa

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