Wedding

I have been off-line for the last month and some. I got mar­ried on Sep­tem­ber 13th. 

The pre­ced­ing days had been filled with intense, some­times fran­tic prepa­ra­tions, a big fam­i­ly pic­nic and a Cuban style pig roast. Time passed in a blink, and sud­den­ly Car­men and I were tak­ing our vows — at dusk at a Seat­tle restau­rant fac­ing Puget Sound. We made an offer­ing to the sea as part of the cer­e­mo­ny, join­ing our Puer­to Rican and Ger­man­ic back­grounds. My friend Jay sang a song he had writ­ten espe­cial­ly for us, “Soul to Soul.” We all ate well — our friends and fam­i­ly toast­ed us, and Jay sang anoth­er favorite song, “How Could Any­one”, lyrics below, while my friend, Barb, signed them. We cut the cake and danced — every­body danced — a fab­u­lous par­ty. We were show­ered with rose petals on our way out the door. 

For both of us, this was the end of one long cycle and the excit­ing begin­ning of the next. Because we want to respect the inti­ma­cy of the cer­e­mo­ny, I will not be post­ing any pic­tures of the event. You’ll just have to imag­ine the tremen­dous feel­ing of warmth, grat­i­tude, and con­nec­tion that was there and that will be with us for the rest of our lives.

The next day, ear­ly, we left on our hon­ey­moon in Tofi­no on the west side of Van­cou­ver Island, British Colum­bia. We went whale watch­ing, took a dip in a remote hot springs, ran into a cou­ple of black bears on a hike through dense rain­for­est down to a desert­ed beach. We bought fish, hal­ibut and salmon, caught fresh from the sea and made roman­tic din­ners. We wan­dered the beach out in front of our lodg­ings, a stun­ning beach house bor­rowed for a week as a wed­ding gift from friends. The weath­er was typ­i­cal, cloudy with driz­zle and some occa­sion­al sun breaks. We did­n’t care what it did.

There is such a thing as deep happiness. 

How could any­one ever tell you
You were any­thing less than beautiful?

How could any­one ever tell you
You were less than whole?

How could any­one fail to notice
That your lov­ing is a miracle?

How deeply you’re con­nect­ed to my soul.

Here are a few pho­tos from our trip to Tofino.

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By Dan Oestreich

I am a consultant, coach, facilitator and trainer supporting the growth and development of leaders and teams. For further information about my work and services, please access my Oestreich Associates website.

15 comments

  3. Con­grat­u­la­tions Dan!! May you both enjoy bliss. “And the end of all our explor­ing; will be to arrive where we start­ed; and to know the place for the first time.”

  5. Wel­come back Dan. Best wish­es to you and to Car­men. And I’m pleased to see you still attract­ed to water 🙂

  7. Ahh. The real life chap­ter now begins for my friend Dan. I wish both of you all that the love and hap­pi­ness the uni­verse can offer. Soul to soul — as the song says — I don’t know where I end and you begin. Your friends Sandy and Byron

  9. Ho‘omaika‘i ‘ana Dan, an Alo­ha-filled con­grat­u­la­tions to you and Car­men! I am so thrilled for you as I think about the won­ders which will new­ly bless your lives.

    I have tak­en the lib­er­ty of using your last pho­to in this post as my new desk­top wall­pa­per (all of them are gor­geous) so I can pro­long this pre­cious thought of cel­e­brat­ing with you both!

  10. I’m touched, Rosa. Indeed, Car­men and I are in those “won­ders,” learn­ing what our bless­ings will be. Many best wish­es to you, too. 

    And of course I’m hon­ored to have my pho­to on your desktop!

  11. Con­grats Dan:

    Sound like a ter­rif­ic time in your life. I con­sid­er Long Beach as the loca­tion of my spir­i­tu­al cen­ter in the world. There is a place on the beach just below a First Nation’s reser­va­tion that you used to be able to camp at and I absolute­ly loved it. I col­lect “heal­ing” rocks every few years and dis­trib­ute them. All the best as you embark into your present and future together.

    David

  12. David, thank you. Pacif­ic Rim park is a very heal­ing place and we have such great mem­o­ries to sus­tain us. We col­lect­ed no stones but we have many photographs!

    Many bless­ings to you.

  13. WOW… I still want to see pic­tures… I can hard­ly wait to vis­it Seat­tle and meet you Dan… I know what a lucky guy you are as Car­men is very close to my heart…Renee : )

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