Music Monday is a meme created by Drew the Tattooed Book Geek, and I never participated before, but now I want to use it as an excuse and start my follow-up post with a song that is very important to me:

This was our first dance, and not accidentally – a beautiful song that we listened to during our first trip together, and one relatively easy to dance to, although a huge cloud of smoke covered my feet just to be safe 😉

Nostalgia for the present that is already becoming the past… bittersweet and beautiful, it will have a very special meaning from now on.

Lyrics:

Don’t tell me
That you get sick of living
When the summer’s so forgiving although we have stolen
All of the things that we though we had owned then
Have disappeared

All these things in flavour
Won’t do you no favours
When the summer’s light is fragrant with scents of returning
You relent, you resent, now you’re burning
For nothing to change….

There’s something there…
(amongst the fallen fruit and flowers)
Won’t rest
(only minutes, only hours)
Unless
(now the morning breaks in showers)
I guess
We’ll remember this all of our lives

On the last good day of the year

All the leaves are turning
Autumn’s fingers burnished
Furnished here in hope and in faith in the meantime
Kinda working my way through a dream
I was having alone

There’s something there…
(amongst the fallen fruit and flowers)
Won’t rest
(only minutes, only hours)
Unless
(now the morning breaks in showers)
I’m left
With the north wind breathing down my neck…

On the last good day of the year…..

(don’t know where i end and where you begin…)

What can I say, I believe it was the best wedding ever, although I’m not the fairest judge here 😉 As I mentioned earlier, the ceremony was secular, so there was a short speech by the clerk and our vows, with a few additions.

We had our friend play a Hisaishi piece on a guitar, a recitation of Szymborska’s (Nobel laureate, so it’s officially great stuff 😉 ) poem, great interpretation of Cohen’s Hallelujah (that some guests applauded as their favourite song from Shrek, and some older relatives interpreted as a small religious element, understanding only the title…). Finally my concessions towards tradition – Mendelssohn’s wedding march – that shows how deeply I’m in love, I never thought I’ll have it played…

Party lasted till 5 AM, so I consider it a success, I definitely never danced so much, quite often with my 4 year old niece who needed a short nap in the middle, but other than that was the most tenacious dancer. I’m not a fan of weddings, and some friends were surprised I got such a big one – but I’m happy we did that.

A funny coincidence – or was it? – but one of the main Polish weeklies, Tygodnik Powszechny, had chosen weddings as its main topic for the issue published just before ours. It featured social scientists discussing the changing form of Polish weddings, and their continuing importance. This is a ritual that everyone here needs at least to somehow relate to, even if an increasing minority decide to forgo it. But the vast majority of couples still organizes one, and it is perhaps the most important event for the extended family and friends. Some people met for the first time, others – after a long, pandemic break. Rites of passage are powerful, and needed, and I’m happy we were able to have mine the way we wanted to, and people important to us seemed to enjoy.