just for now.

A little taste of my sister, Melody’s, wedding day.

It was super emotional for me, and then I realized, this is my first sibling to get married! All my other siblings experienced all of this with me, but this is my first time… So it was incredibly good, and lovely, and just full of depth for me. To have known Melody her whole entire life, see her ups and downs, her questions, her victories– to know her heart. To watch her love towards Michael grow, to watch her grow into his love for her… And then stand up with them both as they make their forever vows. It’s a lot, you know?

You bet I cried. Shamelessly.

-me-

-Melody Grace-

-the “I will” before the “I do”-

-down the aisle-

-parents blessing-

-kissed!-

-mr. and mrs.-

After this we took some family pictures in another building while the sanctuary was converted into the reception hall. The lovely and talented Kelsey made all this happen! And then on to the dancing…

-Melody has the most peaceful ‘in love’ face, ever-

-isn’t this awesome?-

-cake face-

-we did a bridesmaids+bride dance-

-I think the only reason everyone wasn’t on the floor was because it was always full!-

-the toss-

-leaving-

-off to bliss!-

Thanks, Pandora, you just ushered back a wave of teenage-me memories. Thanks to that cheese-ball love song that I loved in highschool.

(PS: I’m not trying to degrade highschool/teenagers/cheesy music. Just kinda rolling my eyes at me+all those things.)

Anyway, I had the distinct pleasure just now of reliving some of those vaguely intense emotions of my teenagehood:

Oh gosh I love this song. I want this, I want someone to sing this song  to me…

But I don’t think I got much further than that at seventeen. And so tonight, sitting here listening again, I’m reminded what a different person I am. But why? Why did I love that song? Why do I still like it (blush)?

And here’s what I got: teenage-heather wanted to be special.

Also, I couldn’t believe that I really was that– effortlessly special, clearly unique, engagingly sweet, memorably genuine.  Still something tugged at a corner of my mind, begging, desiring for someone to tell me that I was. That I was who I wanted to be.

Oh, desires. Reminds me of a little something I was just reading:

“Our desires lie within our boundaries…

Part of the problem lies in the lack of structured boundaries within our personality. We can’t define who the real “me” is and what we truly desire.

Many desires masquerade as the real thing.

They are lusts that come out of now owning our real desires.”

(Boundaries, Dr.Cloud & Townsend)