Sun And Moon

Today, August 21, 2017, there is a Total Solar Eclipse – the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, at one point totally covering the sun and turning day into night.

Today is also the 12th anniversary of our church wedding. For the special occasion, we put together a CD of our favorite love songs that we played during the ceremony and the reception afterwards. One of the songs is Sun and Moon from the musical Miss Saigon. American military husband, Asian wife – it fits. Of course, our story turned out better than that of Kim and Chris. For truly, we have been blessed, my husband and I.

KIM
you are sunlight and I moon
joined by the gods of fortune
midnight and high noon
sharing the sky
we have been blessed, you and I

CHRIS
you are here like a mystery
I’m from a world that’s so different
from all that you are
how in the light of one night
did we come so far?

KIM
outside day starts to dawn

CHRIS
your moon still floats on high

KIM
the birds awake

CHRIS
the stars shine too

KIM
my hands still shake

CHRIS
I reach for you

BOTH
and we meet in the sky!

KIM
you are sunlight and I moon
joined here
bright’ning the sky
with the flame
of love

BOTH
made of
sunlight
moonlight

Ye Are Blood Of My Blood, And Bone Of My Bone

Today is my and my husband’s 12th wedding anniversary, the first of two we celebrate – one civil, the other church.

This special time always makes me think of wedding vows from romance books. One of my favorites is the Gaelic Wedding Vow. This has been used in many romance books, especially those set in the Scottish Highlands, most famously Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. One of my favorite new authors of Historical Romance, Kerrigan Byrne, also used it in the first book of her Victorian Rebels series – The Highwayman.

“She looked up at him with those eyes, and Dougan experienced a pang of love so intense and ferocious it felt as though it didn’t belong in this holy room.
He began the incantation he remembered from watching once from behind his mother’s skirts when he was young.

‘Ye are blood of my blood, and bone of my bone.
I give ye my body, that we two might be one.
I give ye my spirit, ’til our life shall be done.’

Farah needed a bit of prompting to remember all the words, but she said them with such fervency that Dougan was touched. Slipping a ring of a willow herb vine onto her finger, he recited the sacred olde vows with perfect clarity, but translated them into English for her sake.

‘I made ye my heart
At the rising of the moon.
To love and honor,
Through all our lives.
May we be reborn,
May our souls meet and know.
And love again.
And remember.’

She looked lost and mystified for a moment, then announced, “Me, too.”

I’ll be writing a wedding scene for Book 2 of my Carpe Diem Chronicles series and this certainly has given me inspiration.