A cool Sunday morning, sun rays through leaves making pockets of shadows and pools of light where the ferns glow like emeralds, one blooming begonia blossom spotlit from above like a dancer on a darkened stage.
Mr. Moon has already gone back to town to work on our property there and so no excuse to make pancakes today. Ah well. I have plenty to do and glory in the time to do it. I am thinking of a week ago when Jessie and Vergil were freshly wed and we all gathered together again to eat breakfast and hug and cry and wonder and revel and clean up and get ready to go. Really? Just one week?
A very beautiful woman named Dana Villalas
took pictures all throughout the wedding and she has put up a Picasa site of 210 photos which she has made public. Go
HERE if you want to see them. I sort of want to put every one of them on the blog. They are that gorgeous. Dana works with Jessie at Mission Hospital in Asheville on the Mommy-Baby floor and is married to a friend of Vergil's. So- once again- an example of what love and community can come together to create which is far more than each of the separate parts. I am so grateful to Dana for her talented eye, her steady hand, her generosity of spirit.
Shit. I'm crying again.
Here are just a few.
I swear to you, that wedding couldn't have been more beautiful if Martha Fucking Stewart had been the wedding planner and designer. It couldn't have looked more perfect if Ralph Lauren's ad team had set it up.
All right. I'm sobbing like a little baby right now. Just...go on and see for yourselves if you have the notion.
Thank you, Dana. Thank you so very, very much.
With all my heart....Ms. Moon
Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThat first paragraph ... just brings such an image to my mind. LOVE love it. Beautifully written. Thank you for that vision.
ReplyDeleteP.S. You have one glorious mane of hair woman! ;)
~L
P.P.S. Is that your house? If so ... OMG ... wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHeartinhand- So, so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLynne- Hello and welcome to our little community here. Thanks for stopping by and for commenting. Yes, that is my house in the header. And yes, it is a very wonderful place to live. And yeah, I have a lot of hair for an old woman.
Oh Mary I woke first to the news of a friend's newly discovered cancer then came here to these GORGEOUS photos (even the boy agrees agrees) and there is such intense love and beauty all around us. I feel privileged to see these I do. Thank you and love to you and your beautiful family.
ReplyDeleteRebecca
Madame Rebecca- I'm so sorry about your friend. I have been in your place more than I'd like. There will be a journey, as you know.
ReplyDeleteIt's an honor for the boy to like these photos. And it's an honor for you to be here, to be part of this family. Thank you.
Those pictures (I went and looked at all 210) are wonderful. What a treasure. I think my most favorite is a closeup of you and Mr. Moon walking Jessie down the aisle. The love in that picture is intense. Well there are plenty of others you could say the same thing about intensity of love, but that one hit me hard in the heart.
ReplyDeleteOh Mary, I didn't go to the album until I had made my coffee and opened my laptop, because I knew better than to look at them on my iphone or my kindle. I knew I would want to linger, to fall into the love and community in these photographs, and oh they are divine. The one I stopped at longest, drinking in every detail, was the one of you and Mr. Moon walking your beautiful girl to her future, the love in that picture! The way Mr. Moon's hand is clasping his daughter's, the way you both stand on either side of her in a way that makes it so clear you will be there standing beside her her whole life long, she has only to look left or right, the love there is just breathtaking. Jesse and Virgil look so happy together, so easy together, it's wonderful to see. And the photos of the sisters, oh the sisters together, Lily's radiance, May's joyfulness, the three girls' playfulness and familiarity and connectedness. and owen did himself proud, and little gibson looks like such a little man! And the setting! You're right, Martha Stewart could not have made it more beautiful. You know, you left a comment on my blog yesterday about knowing it is possible for a daughter to love a mother, but you, dear Mary, need only look at your own daughters and the clear adoration they have for you. You made that. You created that. You taught them how to laugh and love like that. I feel so privileged and humbled to be offered this window onto your life, and the way you live it, all the way in, magnificently.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness. Perfect, perfect. Adopt me into your family please, so I can experience just one day of that blinding, no-bounds love. I hope you all know how fortunate, how lucky, how blessed your hearts are.
ReplyDeleteAngella said it all. Utterly beautiful, and perfect as a Sunday morning sermon.
ReplyDeleteWOW! Those photos are STUNNING ~ every single one of them. The love is huge.
ReplyDeleteDitto everything Angella said. I think my favorite is one of Jessie and Vergil kissing after the ceremony. And the cakes are exquisite!
Well, now that I've almost stopped blubbering, first from the pictures and second from Angela's comment, I just want to say thank you so much for sharing. We're so fortunate to know love the whole Moon clan, now increased by one.
ReplyDeleteLove you, Jan and Jack
Ms. Moon! Huge congratulations to Jessie and Vergil! Jessie is such a beautiful bride and Vergil is so handsome. I wish them a lifetime of happiness and love.
ReplyDeleteOh, what a perfect day! The pictures made me cry. Thank you so much for sharing them with us.
ReplyDeleteSpent a while lost in the wonderful pictures of the wedding this morning. Jessie and Vergil are well and truly wed <3 You all did a wonderful job celebrating this union. Lis' cake was spectacular to look at and I'll bet every crumb was delicious. Sending love to y'all and your newlyweds. x0 N2
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! Those photos are stunning. I can only imagine what it must've been like to experience that in person.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are beautiful. I just finished reading your entire blog today and let me just say I have done little else for about 2 weeks. I have really enjoyed it. I know so many of the places you write about. I read so much I can relate to. I lost My Mom in December, I am from Mobile, Al. My aunt and My Mom but lived in Winter Haven and here at the end I find out I share my maiden name with Jessie now. I wanted to friend you on facebook but that seemed to much like a stalker. I found your through "Go Ask Alice When She is 94".
ReplyDeleteJill- I will never forget that moment. Ever.
ReplyDeleteAngella- You know how I feel about you. Yes. We are sisters somehow, some way. There is no other explanation.
Ashley- The crazy thing is- I believe we DO know how lucky we are. I sure as hell do. And am stunned by my fortune in the love in my life. Are you new here? If so, welcome.
Elizabeth- And you are another sister. Whom I cherish.
lulumarie- Those cakes were not only a work of art, they are the most delicious cakes I've ever eaten. Love you, honey.
Jan (and Jack)- Wouldn't Colin have been proud? He loved our Jessie so much. I have a fabulous picture of him with Jessie and Vergil from the first time Vergil ever visited. I am SO glad that we are all family. We've known a few good weddings, haven't we?
Angie- Thank-you! I know that Jessie and Vergil are reading these posts and the comments and how amazing and wonderful is it that they are getting even more love here?
Birdie- It is my great, good pleasure.
N2- And thank you and love to you, too!
Nancy- Well, quite frankly, I'm never going to get over it.
Gail- Oh Lord, woman! I am not worthy! But that is amazing- all of our similarities. Please know that I am completely blown away by the idea that someone would go back and read my entire blog. I am so prolific! And go ahead and friend me on FB where I am mostly silent. I will not feel stalked. I swear. You know more about me than most people ever will at this point anyway. And please comment any time you want.
I started reading the newer ones and there was so much I didn't know. I just had to go back and read it.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am just warning you that since I saw that you told Gail it was ok to friend you on FB I'm going to. I've wanted to but didn't want to be a creeper/stalker. But I'm going for it ;)
ReplyDeleteGail- I guess, as Elvis Costello once said, "Every day I write the book."
ReplyDeleteJill- Do it! And I will learn more about you although you will probably not learn more about me . I will be honored to be your friend.
Absolutely, positively spectacular. Every single photograph. And that starry sky? Be still my beating heart. You are so right. I am certain that Martha Effing Stewart could not have done a better job. And those photographs! What an eye she has!
ReplyDeleteThe best part is that I now officially feel like I was there. There from the start to the end with the jam session. Loved all of it.
xo, Kimberly
p.s. May looks so, so much like you. And I loved seeing those sisters together. That is the part that made me cry the most. You know why.
Momma Moon,
ReplyDeleteI have read here for years. I just don't have time to blog and as such, don't comment much. I feel sometimes I don't give as much as I gain, for sure. But, I'm busy loving my young family-appreciate seeing yours through your eyes. Thanks.
Oh, and that quilt? Be still my heart.
ReplyDeleteI've no internet at the moment, so am catching up in school... these look so gorgeous, I'm going to be crying in the computer room xx
ReplyDeleteGradydoctor- Yes. I know why. I'm so glad we know each other.
ReplyDeleteAshley- It's okay. Raising up a family is a very time-consuming process. I'm just happy you're here.
And that quilt was all the idea of Vergil's mother and sister who organized it all and got all of the squares quilted together. Isn't it amazing?
Jo- STILL no internet? Damn, girl.
Such great photos. I really am glad that the wedding was filled with people that both families knew. It made it all the more special.
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