La Dolce Vita: The Sweet Life with Three Sons

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Speak to Me Sunday: A Lesson from Shrek

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, I give you this photo of Shrek the sheep.

Poor Shrek. He was found after he had been hiding out in a cave for six years. In all that time, without anyone there to shear his fleece, it grew and grew. Most sheep have a fleece that weighs around ten pounds, but Shrek’s fleece weighed almost sixty.

Poor Shrek carried a monumental burden simply because he was away from his shepherd. In less than half an hour a professional sheep shearer removed his sixty pounds of fleece.

All that time burdened and alone, and all Shrek had to do was come home to his shepherd.

“Come to me, all you who labor and have been burdened, and I will refresh you.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you shall find rest for your souls.”

(Mt 11:28-30)

Friday, April 19, 2024

Reflections on a Wedding

At this very moment, Jonathan and Caroline are at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport waiting to board a flight for their honeymoon trip to London and Paris, and in honor of this I will (finally) write about their beautiful wedding last November.

It was a wedding that, in many ways, was nurtured during two back-to-back family weddings when Caroline was introduced to our entire family all at once—siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends. And she held her own with kindness and grace; in fact, at the end of that first family wedding (Nicholas and Lauren’s) my brother came up to me and said, “Okay. Can I tell you how much we love Caroline? Jonathan had better hold on to her!”

I should also mention that Caroline and I roomed together at both those back-to-back family weddings, and what better way to get to know someone than when sharing a room and talking late into the night? I already had one great daughter-in-law and, in my heart, I knew one day (hopefully soon!) I would be getting another one with Caroline.

So, my brother’s words were prophetic because we all loved Caroline and, indeed, Jonathan did hold on to her. Good job, Jono!

Which brings us to the wedding.

And this is where words fail me. Because how can words, lined up in neat rows, sentence after sentence and paragraph after paragraph, even begin to convey the myriad of emotions? It is like standing on the seashore and trying to capture a wave even as the next one comes rolling in.

Where to even begin? At the rehearsal dinner where the toasts had us simultaneously laughing and crying, or earlier in the day with the bridal tea at Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party? Or should I start with the sight of my son standing on the altar, looking handsome and grown up as he watched Caroline walk down the aisle? Or maybe I could begin with Monsignor’s homily, addressed directly to the couple, after which he gave them a bible with instructions to highlight all the readings they had chosen for their nuptial Mass and to use them as a blueprint for the rest of their lives?

How can words describe the sweetness of groomsmen, with boutonnieres in hand, waiting in line to have them pinned on? Or the quiet whispers of Caroline’s dress as her bridesmaids helped her get ready, and the shuffling of feet and murmuring of voices as guests began to arrive? How to describe the brilliant blue sky that seemed to sing Hosanna as we exited the church?

How can the three little letters in “joy” be sufficient to describe the exuberance of the guests dancing, or of Jonathan’s smile as he twirled his new bride across the dance floor? Or of all the guests singing along to “Sweet Caroline” during the father-daughter dance?

And the laughter, champagne bubbly, how to describe that? Or the magic of descending into a ballroom festooned with blue and white, accented with hints of gold and sprinkled with greenery, all magical and fairy-like. Or the love of the new couple, holding hands as they walked through an archway of sparklers to a future together as man and wife.

Words are too confining, so I will let the photos convey what I cannot.