They do!!

My sister is MARRIED!!!

And I am pretty ecstatic about it! We all are! Especially Erin and David, of course!

We got to get out of the cold Utah snow and go down to California the week between Christmas and New Years, and basically throw together a wedding. And really, that's the way to do it! A week of crazy planning/shopping/cooking, and then you're done! Done!

It was lovely! A beach wedding--so beautiful! She looked like a queen! The weather couldn't have been more perfect....especially in the middle of winter when the previous three days were non-stop rain. They both smiled away through the ceremony, just too happy!

I am excited for them. I am excited for their moving forward together. I am excited for their discovery of what marriage is: A chain, nothing heavier...and nothing more liberating! And I mean heavy in the best sense. But it is. When you marry someone, you agree to pass through not only your own trials, but theirs as well, and the ones that are created by getting married—job losses, deaths, sorrows that inevitably come with children. You agree to carry half of a burden your entire life, to walk a rocky road alongside that person.

Because marriage can be rocky. The world has forgotten this about marriage. Now people marry because a relationship is fun, and when they hit the first rocks together, they’re amazed. They wonder what in the world they’ve gotten themselves into….and so they get out. A shame too…

Because marriage is also the most liberating relationship there is. Because you “yolk” together (as my husband once described it), you agree to carry half a burden… and someone else stands beside you and carries the other half—for life! You never walk a rocky road alone. There is someone that always knows you intimately because you pass through the same trials together. Someone who understands you. Someone who remembers the greatness of you when you have forgotten. Someone who pushes you back to that greatness. A liberating feeling, never being alone or misunderstood or forgotten.

So I am excited for Erin and David to walk the heavy, liberating, rocky, breathtaking road that is marriage. It is still the best decision I ever made…with the best man that was ever made! And in the words of Walt Whitman:

I do not offer the old smooth prizes,
But offer rough new prizes,
These are the days that must happen to you:
You shall not heap up what is called riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve.
However sweet the laid-up stores,
However convenient the dwellings,
You shall not remain there.
However sheltered the port,
And however calm the waters,
You shall not anchor there…

Say only to one another:
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love, more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law:
Will you give me yourself?
Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?