Cassie + David’s Wedding Ceremony

CONSECRATION by George Cleary

Here is the heart of your partner. It’s in the center of our bodies, and it’s well placed to do what it needs to do. It’s the most crucial part of a complex system of life. The heart can’t even take one small breather without the system going haywire. And the heart, we all seem to agree, is where love lives.

Since the heart is at the center of our bodies, it seems fitting that love ought to be at the center of our lives. We speak of the heart as both this internal object and as this collective of emotion, and as such the heart bridges the gap between the physical and the emotional, the material and the mystical. The heart is the hardest working muscle in your body, and the most mysterious component of our consciousness. The heart does its work without prodding, without asking, and every second of every minute of every hour of every day, it nourishes and sustains us. Love can be said to work similarly, quietly, tirelessly, it’s always there sustaining the other parts of our lives. If we can speak from the depths of our hearts, we can commune at the deepest levels of our truth.

Because the heart you will hold now is the heart  that’s going to race with anticipation when you have big news to share. This heart will pound in fear if you are ever threatened, it will skip a beat when you surprise it, it will sink when it gets bad news, and it will soar when there are triumphs. It will flutter with sweetness, it will ache in separation, and it will jump for joy.

Because this is the heart that loves you. This heart is engaged in an intimate dance with your own, unseen, but not unfelt. This is the heart that with every beat, says Yes. This heart sings, and it’s up to you to listen, to hear the melody, and to sing along.