My Wishes for Deena

We've never met face to face Deena, but I trust Alex's judgement implicitly. As you prepare to join your life with his, I wish you all these things:

• May you feel welcome as a member of our family; loved and accepted just as much as he loves you and accepts you.
• May you have a marriage that is more than even what you wildest dreams imagine.
• May Alex find you attractive always, especially when you feel unattractive. May he always see you as the girl he first loved(even if this means he never notices when you change hairstyles or gain/lose weight).
• May you have a houseful of love, between you both, your familes and all who know you.
• May you have the man who is strong when you need him to be, yet understands and supports that often it is we, the women, who must be the strong ones.
• May you worry only when you need to.
• May Alex be your helium and your string: giving you flight, yet holding you steady.
• May you be blessed with a peaceful home and the talent for keeping it so.
• May your ends always meet.
• May you find a man who trusts you enough to cry with you. There are few higher honors than a man's tears entrusted to one who won't disrespect them.
• May it be forever.

I can't wait to meet you. Congratulations!

My Wishes for Alex

Little brother, I'm so happy for you and so proud of you! I finally understand why mom always cried during beautiful pieces of music and happy parts of movies (I am sooo my mother's daughter).

Alex, I wishes for you:

• May your bond be like the strong bonds you've been surrounded with all your life. May you take the steadfast, stubborn, longlasting love we saw in our grandparents and parents into your own marraige.
• May you find in Deena a real partner, a woman you know you can share your whole self, even the grumpy in the morning, unshaved and messy haired self with.
• May you be both a leader and a follower in your relationship, learning and becoming the teacher by turns.
• May you be comforted and offer comfort as it's needed, that you can become to her what she has been to you.
• May you have what you need, yet know the pride of self-reliance.
• May you work together to accomplish your goals; nothing is so satisfying as sharing these experiences.
• May you suffer crises, that you can know miracles and recovery.
• May you argue, that you can make up.
• May you have met someone who compliments your attention to detail with flexibility, your devotion with respect and honor.
• May you have found a partner who makes you want to work and to grow.
• May you find tenderness and intimacy in quiet times, a sense of humor and steady temper in loud ones.
• May you have found someone who gets your jokes, even the really dry ones.
• May she mean as much to you as Bill means to me, that to lose her would be losing a part of yourself.
• May it be forever.

I love you.

Inspiration from the iPod

At the end of my Featured Space week on MSN last year, I posted about 'Inspiration from the Radio.' It may have been one of my best posts to date. Music stirs us all deeply. In addition, times of intense emotions tend to inspire me to write. When my grandmother was dying, three years ago, I wrote the tribute that drove my grandfather to ask me to speak at Alex and Deena's rehearsal dinner.

Knowing both these things, I guess it's not surprising that with a week to go before my little brother marries the love of his life, I am suddenly bursting with inspiration. One tiny whiney note: where the HECK was all this inspriration over the course of the last two months, huh? It's gotta all arrive in one night? Yeah, that's reasonable!

*cleansing breath*

Annnnnnnd we're back.

Tonight, I heard Rascal Flatt's sing 'My Wish' and all my wishes for my brother and his fiance began crowding into my brain. It might take me more than one post. I hope you bear with me, I may have wishes for more people than simply Alex and Deena. As I sit I can think of wishes I have for both my grandmothers, my parents, my kids, my grandfather and the rest of my family.

It's a darn good thing I'm practicing to be a Godmother. No other creature has the capacity to handle the vastness of well-wishes bursting out of me right now.

Without further ado...