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If you want to stay young, be with young people… if you want to die
young, try to keep up with young people
Over this past weekend I tried
to stay young. But at the end of each
day I knew I had tried to keep up with young people.
The old adage states… “If you want
to stay young, be with young people… if you want to die young, try to keep up
with young people”
This is Monday Morning and I
am sure that I am going to die sometime before I get rolling. But maybe if I
get rolling and find some young people to hang out with… I will not die that
soon!
“How come you are tired?” you
ask.
Well, let me tell you what
happened.
I attended an amazing wedding
on Saturday June 9, 2012. Matthew Rourke and Bethany Whyte were married. I
conducted the wedding ceremony and watched as two amazing young people tied a knot
together.
I have been to so many
weddings by this point in my life that I cannot count them any longer. But this one was very unique.
Coming into this wedding day
Matthew and Bethany were bringing along three wonderfully bright and beautiful
kids. At the end of the official
ceremony I conducted my first “Sand Ceremony”.
On the table in front of their guests to this amazing wedding, stood a
small table with four vases of different coloured sand on it. In the middle of
these vases was one large empty vase.
After an explanation of the
Sand Ceremony they each picked up their vases and poured it into the large
empty vase. The large empty vase became
a mixture of many colours.
Their oldest child, a
beautiful young lady of 10 years of age, began to pour her sand into the vase… with
that tears of joy were running down her cheeks.
As each grain of sand mixed with the others her tears continued to down
her cheeks. Mom and Dad were sniffling too as they all came together.
This beautiful 10 year old had
adopted her Dad quite a few years ago… but today he was becoming her real dad.
She was kind of marrying him too… and she loves Matthew.
I was about to cry too as we
backed away from the table to carry on the ceremony. There were many wet tissues on almost every
chair and in every pocket at the end of the wedding.
I cannot tell you all of
Bethany and Matthew’s story. It is
longer than this blog posting would be able to contain.
One highlight that I came to
know much better after meeting Matthew and Bethany a number of times, was
Matthew’s struggle with his back pain.
Matthew’s back was hurt
seriously at his construction site workplace.
The injury didn’t really show up until later on… and it grew
progressively worse. The very capable and strong young man that had been a top
athlete in his young life was now sitting in a wheel chair when meeting us for
the marriage counseling. The pain was
deadened somewhat by the pain killers he takes.
But the Doctor’s and medical advisers have offered him little help up to
this point in time.
But Matthew is not a
quitter. And the gal that he has married
is not either. Bethany graduated from
her college course on Thursday night and was married on Saturday. Through her
months of study prior to this graduation she supported Matthew in every way and
walked through some of his darkest hours of pain. But then I should tell you that she was able
to start a brand new job all before graduation and all during her planning
their wedding.
As they said their vows to
each other, a very meaningful place in every ceremony, Matthew very slowly
lowered himself to the ground in front of Bethany on to his one knee. Then
holding her hands he smiled at her and stated clearly his vows to his beautiful
bride. No matter if there was pain or not he had planned to honour his bride
and tell her how much he loved her with this one simple action.
I have never witnessed any
groom do this for his bride at their wedding ceremony… let alone one that has
suffered as much pain as Matthew was feeling at that moment.
Towards the end of the Wedding
Ceremony I placed my hands on top of theirs and began to pray a prayer of
blessing for their marriage. I have done this at almost every wedding that I
have ever conducted. But this marriage
of Matthew and Bethany was different… and the prayer changed… I not only asked
God to bless them I prayed for the healing of Matthew’s back and for God to
take away all the pain. And as I prayed
both Matthew and Bethany began to hold my hand very tightly… and I almost broke
into tears myself.
CONGRATULATIONS MATT and
BETHANY, I think you folk are amazing!!!
I will continue to pray for you each day as God brings you to my
thoughts. Am miracle is coming!
Saturday was something else…
this being with Young People.
Pause… taking a deep breath…
But so was Friday when I spent
the entire day speaking with Grade Three students at Lang Pioneer Village as I
was the 1856 Carpenter in the Hastie Carpenter Shop. What a super charged day that was! WOW! Back at doing my Lang Pioneer Village
volunteer thing again.
But after the Matthew and
Bethany’s wedding was over I came home and packed my vehicle full again for the
all day Sunday Adventure to Bobcaygeon Settler’s Village!
That was yesterday… a whole
day with many dozens of younger people that flooded our booth and became my “BFF”
(best friends forever)!
They came to try out the
Spring Pole Lathe that I was demonstrating… and to try the wooden spoons that I
play at these shows. What a BLAST.
Over and over again we played
the spoons and did fun stuff together.
Outside the large barn that we
were in were streets filled with antique cars of all kinds. The men and women that have poured so many
hundreds of hours in restoring these beautiful old vehicles came to speak with
me many times during the day.
I think the Lathe and the
Spoons attracted them as well. These
were the “Young At Heart” all loving the day and smiling broadly as the young
ones came to ask about their old cars.
Though it had to be the
hottest and muggiest day we have had so far… the kids came by the dozens.
I was young again… and growing
younger by the moment. Kind of like a ‘Time Travel Experience’.
At the end of the day (and my
wife didn’t get a shot of this happening) two ‘older fellers’ like me picked up
the spoons and we began to play together.
The one ‘feller’ picked up the spoons first and said to “Turn up the
music!” and away we went. YOU HAVE NEVER
HEARD THE SOUNDS LIKE THIS… we did amazing together! This was the final part to my amazing three
days of being young again… playing music and making a joyful noise with my new
BBFs.
But… I am moving slowly this
morning… very slowly.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
Some more photos to see what took place these past few days...
Settler's Village
Matthew and Bethany's Wedding
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