Jul 22 2007
A Wedding Greeting
I no longer buy greeting cards.
I buy blank cards. Some have drawings, some are black and white photos, and some are art prints.
When I give a card, I think of the person I’m sending it to and what they might like. I think of the occasion and let the art inspire my writing.
I needed a wedding card.
I went through my collection of cards and found one with a sepia toned photo of a Japanese Drum Bridge.
Here is what I wrote:
Love is a bridge than spans any divide
Bridges must weather storms, never buckle, never break.
Love is stronger than any bridge, with its power
to forgive mistakes.
Bridges must withstand tempests, bear the lashing of the tides.
Love is stronger than any bridge,
it is a light where fear can’t hide.
Bridges are not forever, they can crumble, decay.
Love endures, grows stronger by the day.
Your love is a bridge but better:
You’re joined.
Heart to heart, hand in hand,
Together.
Stronger than one.
. . .
Yesterday I went to a wedding.
My gift to the bride and groom was a card. Enclosed in the card were a check and a greeting.
I don’t think that the very best is a mass-produced greeting embossed on heavy card stock. I want the construction paper, Elmer’s Glue, glitter and crayon scribbles.
Don’t get me wrong – I like receiving cards and appreciate the thought and love that went into the sending.
When someone includes more than their signature those extra words speak volumes.
Next: The Wedding – A Day Of Tears
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Those are definitely good thoughts. It’s always really nice when people put a lot of thought into their cards. I think that a well-thought card is worth more than a pricey generic gift. Of course I suppose that could depend a bit on your love language.
I also like to write unique things in cards to people. However, mine are not usually quite as well written as your poem. Mine are more likely to be corny poems than eloquent truisms.
Very pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nice thought about the bridge too ANd neat bridge…I hate to say this since I believe I’m already professed a love for transportation, but I do love bridges…
Last summer I made my daughter a handmade card for each and every day she was in summer camp. That was overboard I think…what can I say? I was newly divorced & hadn’t been reacquainted with the concept of “free time”. This year I’ve only made two…
I’m back in town, home mere moments ago…okay! About an hour…hope you had a great weekend!!!!!
Derek: Thanks for the link about the Five Love Languages. Interesting! How’d you come across that? You must be interested in creating better relationships! My “language of love” looks to be Quality Time and “Words of Affirmation” – but the other 3 languages are all in the mix.
I read something similar to the article you linked to – something about how couples may speak different love languages and be telling each other how much they love one another but because they aren’t speaking the same language, they don’t hear the message! I think the article listed the same “love languages”
Everyone has their own style and it’s great you like to write unique things in cards to people. SO what if it’s corny! I could have written:
What do bridges do?
It crosses waters, gaps, divides.
What is marriage?
Man loves woman.
He sees forever in her eyes.
Or something.
I’m glad you thought the poem was well-written. It took FOREVER to write. Yeesh. I always wonder if rhyming is trite.
Jill: I believe you enjoy scrapbooking (is there such a word?) so your making handmade cards for your daughter for every day of summer camp makes total sense!
I hope your weekend was fun. Will you be posting about it? I’ll be writing about at least part of mine over the next few days.
I dunno…crossing the country on 2 hours sleep via airplane…could be something to blog there I guess???
I actually need to finish up on the purse contents one you suggested – that’s what I had planned to put up next. 
I noticed you have the same as Ricardo where you list what’s coming up next. I was thinking about Ricardo’s that I’m always more or less surprised *usually* by what I’m going to post. I mean, I *think* I”m going to post that purse contents thing tomorrow morning or even tonight if I got my act together really quickly, but a different idea could hit me from left field (amazing how I come up with these sports references even though I hate sports) in between and I’d completely abandon the whole purse idea.
But would you abandon writing about the wedding/day of tears if it seemed wrong that day, or something else seemed more right, since you already announced it? Just been wondering about that.
Jill: I just borrowed the “coming up next” idea from Ricardo for the next couple of posts. I’m more like you when it comes to writing – I have some idea of what I may post next but something else may come to mind. In this case I had one post idea and then I saw that it was a bit long and that it would be better off broken up into 3 posts.
My next couple of posts are not done yet but I do have an idea of where I am going with them.
When it comes to changing what you post after telling your readers what is next, well, both Ricardo and Irisi wrote something different than advertised recently. You just put a “I know I told you I was going to write about X but something came up so I’m going to tell you about Y”
It’s easy to get obsessed with following through on your promises when it comes to blogging. Many times I should be doing something else instead of blogging!
That makes sense. Mine are always too long, but I’m not sure I could really break them up all that well…
The Japanese Drum Bridge looks like something from the Johnathan Paddleford Mississippi River Boat.
Great poem!!
Speedy H.
Eric: I dunno where the bridge is located. I grabbed the photo off the Internet and didn’t pay attention to the location.
Glad you like the poem. My MyBlogLog stats show that many people find there way to this post via the google search on “wedding card greeting” or something similar. Makes me wonder if people copy it and use it themselves! I certainly have use famous quotations or poems in cards I have created. That is, until I decided that I really should be thinking up something on my own, what with being a writer and all. ..