our love words weekend

I've decided to keep the script that Tommy and I composed close to our hearts, for us to revel in, for us to enjoy...and for our guests to experience.  However, I would love to share with you our readings.  Tommy and I each have two siblings, and all are in our bridal party.  We wanted to include them in our ceremony in a more prominent way, and invited each of them to give a reading during the ceremony.  (There are three readings here, Tommy's little sister read a prayer at the beginning of the ceremony.)   These literary passages give me goosebumps...and I love the poem by Neruda.

An excerpt from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke-the language that everyone on earth is capable of understanding in their heart. It was love.

Something older then humanity, more ancient then the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met. She smiled, and that was certainly an omen-the omen he had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life.

It was the pure language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe need none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than anything in the world …And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.

An excerpt from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Heminway 

At night, there was the feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal.
We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. 

Often a man wishes to be alone and a woman wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that.
We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. We were never lonely and never afraid when we were together.

Soneto 17 by Pablo Naruda

I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way than this:

where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.