Part One: Welcoming and comments, Navajo Prayer, Peace, and welcome, everyone. Before we begin, Kathleen and Robert have asked me to say that throughout the ceremony you are all welcome to sit or stand as you wish, however you find it most comfortable for yourselves.

Beauty before me, I walk
Beauty behind me, I walk
Beauty above me, I walk
Beauty below me, I walk
Surrounded by beauty, I walk
(Navajo prayer)

    Indeed, in beauty we have walked and ascended, and now we are surrounded by beauty in this very special place to witness the union of Kathleen and Robert in marriage. Today Robert and Kathleen openly proclaim their love for each other to the world, and we rejoice with and for them. Knowing that love is always the best guide for us as we walk our path in life, it is in the spirit of pure and beautiful love that Kathleen and Robert will exchange their promises to each other in bond of their separate hearts; in celebration of their commitment to not just gazing at one another, but to looking outward together in the same direction.

Gazing outward (Click the image for a full-size view)

Gazing Inward (Click the image for a full-size view)

Enjoying the rain (Click the image for a full-size view)

    Perhaps secondary only to Robert and Kathleen's commitment to each other is their commitment to their stewardship of this beauty which surrounds us not only here and now, but everywhere it is to be found within the environment of this planet we call Earth, and to the keeping of our environment as a safe, nurturing, and especially wonderful place to live. We extol the virtue of this intertwined dedication to themselves and to all that surrounds them, and we know that their success in this lifelong endeavour will depend in no small part on our love and support for them. For even as they are to be married to each other, all their family and friends become joined to them anew. This is a good thing, a truth to savor and revere.

    Part Two: John Muir devotional, moment of personal quietude.
    Now, to honor Yosemite, the natural wonder where we gather today, Kathleen and Rob have asked George to read from the words of John Muir, the one who labored throughout his life to preserve this treasure for us all.

   Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The wind will blow the freshness into you, and storms and energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
(John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierras)

    Thank you George. John Muir reminds us that our connection with the natural world is a sacred bond but what of the relationship between human beings? The poet, Rainer Maria Rilke cautions us that the tie between humans too is a fragile, precious gift to be nurtured with gratitude. Kathleen's son, Gordon, will read from the words of the poet.

Gordon reads Rilke  Click here for a larger image

   For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
    Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.
    Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.
(Rainer Maria Rilke)

    Let us now observe just a few moments of personal quietude, and reverently reflect on the sounds, sights, and all the other glorious sensations nature provides us.
    In peace, love, and beauty we are ever grateful.

    Part Three: Friendship honoring:
    Now, Kathleen would like to speak to all her friends.
    [Kathleen introduces and reads book (I Need All the Friends I Can Get; Charles M. Schultz)]

Kathleen reads to guests  Click here for a larger image

    Part Four: Handfasting and Vows:
    Robert and Kathleen, please now come stand before me. You have chosen to symbolize the bonding of your hearts by way of the ancient Celtic ritual of handfasting. Know before you go further, that since your lives have joined in the unique fashion of the deeply held love that exists only between life partners, you have in truth formed hallowed bonds of human emotion and spirit, and you need to hold these bonds inviolable and everlasting between yourselves. As a result of these bonds you have already come to embrace ideals, and as you seek to enter this state of matrimony you should strive to make real the ideals that to you give meaning to this ceremony and to the institution of marriage.
    In many cultures it is believed that the human spirit is aligned with the natural elements of the world in which we live. You believe in yourselves as spiritually interwoven with the natural elements of earth, air, water, and light. By exercising the rightful and proper authority of stewardship of these elements, these natural gifts which the world provides to you will help you build a happy and successful union. These elements are all represented in the fabric which you have chosen for your handfasting tie. As no plant or tree can grow without them, and as they are visibly in abundance about us in this wondrous place, let us recognize and honor these elements each in turn as we carry out the handfasting.

    Kathleen, Robert, I bid you turn, take your partner's hands into your own, and look into each other's eyes. In honor of elemental Earth, which provides sustenenance, security, and productiveness, will you honor and respect one another, and seek to never break that honor?

    We will
    And so are you joined: in Prosperity, as in Earth.

    In honor of elemental Air, for openness and breath, communication of the heart, and purity of the mind and body, will you share each other's trials and hardships, and always seek to ease them with the gentle caress of patient partnership?

    We will
    And so are you joined: in Virtue, as in Air.

    In honor of elemental Water, for its capacity to fill all voids, for its property of self-leveling, for its necessity to life, will you share each other's laughter, and look for the brightness in life and the positive in each other?

    We will
    And so are you joined: in Courage, as in Water.

    Finally, and in chief place, we honor the element of Light. Light has many colors, but the purest and clearest light is that which comes from all colors of light blended together, and the gift of blending all the shining, multi-colored facets of your lives together into one brilliant beacon illuminating all the hidden corners of your world is light's gift to you. Like the stars, your love for each other will be a constant source of regenerating energy for you. Like starlight, your love for each other is pure and natural, and is now combined and focused together into a single source of radiant splendor, which will be directed at accomplishing good works, not only for yourselves but also for all your fellow people and other good things that abide upon this planet.

    In honor of elemental Light, will you ever grow brighter in heart and spirit, even as your eyes may dim with age, never losing sight of the pure rainbow of love that brought you together in the first place?

    We will
    And so are you joined: in Love, as in Light.

Handfasting with Cedar bark, Flicker feathers, petrified oyster shells, etc.  Click here for a larger image

    Within this circle, before your friends and family, by being handfasted you have declared your intent to be joined in marriage. Robert, are you ready now to declare to Kathleen your vow of marriage?

    I am

    Then repeat after me:

    I Robert take you Kathleen to be my wife/ {Robert repeats each stanza} I promise above all else to live in truth with you/ and to communicate fully and fearlessly/ I give you my hand and my heart/ as a sanctuary of warmth and peace/ and pledge my love, devotion, faith and honor as I join my life to yours.

    Kathleen, are you ready now to declare to Robert your vow of marriage?

    I am

    Then repeat after me:

    I Kathleen take you Robert to be my husband/ {Kathleen repeats each stanza} I promise above all else to live in truth with you/ and to communicate fully and fearlessly/ I give you my hand and my heart/ as a sanctuary of warmth and peace/ and pledge my love, devotion, faith and honor as I join my life to yours.

Gordon, K & R (Click the image for a full-size view)

Smiling couple (Click the image for a full-size view)

A portion of the celebrants (Click the image for a full-size view)

    Part Five: Marriage proclamation
    Kathleen and Robert, since you have consented together to the bond of matrimony by handfast and vow in the presence of your family and friends, by the authority ordained in me I now pronounce you marriage partners for life. You may now share your first married kiss.

    Part Six: Closing (Apache Wedding Chant)

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth for the other.
Now you are two persons, but there is only one life inside you.
Go now to your dwelling to enter the days of your life together.
And may your days be good, and long upon the earth.
(Apache Wedding Chant)

   Everyone, please come forward and welcome newlyweds Kathleen and Robert Jones.

Cake 1 (Click the image for a full-size view)

K & R at outside fireplace (Click the image for a full-size view)

Cake 2 (Click the image for a full-size view)