The Wedding Shower: A Rite of Passage
The wedding shower guests scribble answers for the How Well Do You Know the Bride game while balancing paper plates laden with fruit salad and muffins as they try to find an extra hand for paper cups of strawberry lemonade or coffee.
The bride-to-be smiles privately as she admits she thinks the eyes are the groom's best feature. She tells the story of how they met at a college campus ministry.
Women of all ages nod and smile.
And remember.
The shy glance.
The entangling of clasped fingers.
The first kiss.
My living room becomes a time machine of memories.
I used to think that bridal showers were a waste of time. Silly games. Oohing and aahing over the latest kitchen gadget. (Let's face it, a new vegetable peeler is not very exciting.) Chit-chatting with ladies while the to-do list remained undone on a busy Saturday afternoon.
I just didn't get it.
Until I realized that in this crazy, busy world we live in, where families are spread out all over the globe and technology threatens to isolate us behind little screens, the bridal shower (and baby shower) remains an important rite of passage.
A ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person's life indicative of a transition from one stage to another.
Women.
Daughters. Grandmothers. Mothers.
Widowed. Divorced. Single. Married.
From age nine to eighty years,
they sit in a gathering-around-the-village-well circle in my living room
sharing stories
taking time to celebrate
connecting
a meeting of community
being a part of my daughter's story
her rite of passage.
I love this pic of the bride-to-be, the maid of honor and grandson Micah, the only boy at the shower.
