So yesterday my mother got married – 

It’s been 11 years since my father passed away, I think this is long over due.  Mom & Marvin have been friends for years, decades really.  He and his wife were friends with my mother & father so they’ve known each other for sometime now.  I think they are great together, Marvin’s a good guy and I know my mom is immensely happy.  It was a bit surreal seeing my mother get married.  I obviously wasn’t around for her first one, so it was an interesting seat back in the sound-booth at the Vineyard last night.  This article isn’t about the wedding per say, just my own experience.  It was a lot of work pulling everything together and so much wouldn’t have been done with out my wife.  She’s so creative and everything was beautiful; it was perfect.  The laptop crapped out on me so I had to run the music mix from my phone, thank you Android!
It was almost an out of body type deal.  Here I was setting up, running sound, doing the lighting, making sure everyone was good and enjoying themselves; it was like hosting a large party!  I really enjoyed myself and I can’t say enough good things about Pastor Compton, he’s Marvin’s son-in-law and now I guess my brother-in-law.  He did such a great job and it was awesome working with him.  I loved the way that with all the hustle to get everything done he made sure that Marvin & my mom had that “moment” where things just kind of slowed down and time froze.  It’s kind of hard to explain, but I’m looking forward to getting to know him better.

15 years later –

Yesterday in the midst of wedding madness I was able to have lunch with a friend I had not seen in 15 years.  She was one of my closest friends throughout high school and for various reasons we lost touch right after graduation.  From time to time I’d try to look her up and see how she was doing but to no avail.  Recently though I had a surprising friend request on Facebook and since then we’ve been trying to catch up when we can.  It was awesome to sit down and talk with her, seems like nothing has changed.  We sat and talked about random stuff for an hour and then we both had to run.  I guess the difference was we didn’t have a teacher telling us to quiet down and we weren’t on the phone at 3 am, LOL.  She hasn’t changed a bit, well other than the wife & mom part, ha ha.  Had a blast and I’m so glad that I’ve reconnected with my friend.

Reflection of the day – 

All in all it was a roller coaster.  There were some things going on that I can’t go into that had me kind of down, frustrated, wishful, and saddened; but then there were the things that had me riding high as well.  One I can’t share for fear of misinterpretation; but I’ll close with the two best moments of the day for me that I can share:

• My daughter was talking to my mom & Marvin as they were leaving, Marvin leans in and says something that ended with ’cause we’re married now’ to which my daughter replies, “Oh goodie I hope you have a baby girl!”  Laughter abounded, the couple is in their mid-60’s but my oldest has associated being married with having babies.  Classic
• After the last guests left to head home I flipped my phone over to some worship music that happened to be on there.  In the midst of doing what cleaning we were going to do I started to feel a bit odd; I was physically and emotionally spent but I longed to worship.  As the family waited outside for me I took just a moment to worship God.  I think that because my own body wanted to give out and my own will was so destroyed that my spirit was able to rise and give thanks.  My friend pointed out that perhaps that my spirit was crying out thanks to God for giving me the strength to make it through the day, I think she’s hit the nail on the head.  The room was empty, but I wasn’t alone.  It’s odd to think we won’t be in that building much longer with the upcoming move and all.  I’ve grown a lot in my years at the Vineyard, looking forward to the future.