Alisha, my light, my life, my love–you are made of such things to make all the Angels in Heaven hide their wings and cry.

Since we've met, a bond has formed between us that only love can understand. Slowly and steadily, from the inside out, the light we share between us has pushed away all the darkness, like a fading eclipse– such that the darkness no longer comprehends.

So, I ask you now to step inside me as we cleave on to each other before God. See yourself as I see you. Feel yourself as I feel you, and always remember that “to love me is to love you”

Now, in this moment, beneath the light that is our love, I pledge these things eternally to you.

"I, Cliff, take you, Alisha, for my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. I will love and honor you all the days of my life.”

I swear to give to you patience and kindness and stand before you, every day, with grace and humility. I will always trust in you and have hope for the future. I promise never to devalue or dishonor you, or to be self-seeking in our love. I will not be easily angered and keep no record of past wrongs. I will not rejoice in the darkness. I will rejoice only in the light– the light that is truth, and will do everything to preserve our love, such that it will never fail.


HAIKU
“We light the candle,
we bind our hands, we say our
vows, we pour the sands”

© Cliff Curtis