Getting Married (Part 4)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

I love a good wedding

All my friends will tell you

I’m the first to cry at them

Be there to sing and dance and by merry

And celebrate the legal uniting of 

Two souls

I’ve been to weddings in gardens

On farms 

In churches

I’ve had the privilege of speaking at weddings

And singing in the ceremony

I love watching friends and family

Declare love

To their loved ones 

And for my own wedding

I wanted exactly no part of the circus

I’ve been engaged once before

We started preparing a wedding

Picked a date, went dress shopping, drafted lists, looked at venues

Learnt that the minute you mentioned

“Wedding” instead of “party”

The prices instantly doubled 

I discovered that 

Every. Person. In. The. World.

Has. An. Opinion.

And if you don’t listen to, and follow through, with their 

Sage advice

You will be DOOMED

Or offend, insult, or have yourself struck from the family tree. 

Instead of perusing wedding magazines

And blogs

Or attending fairs and conventions

Or sitting with girlfriends and sisters over coffee

Discussing details

I read about the history of weddings

Trying to understand 

What bought us to this level of crazy

I discovered that, in its earliest days,

The Christian church abhorred marriage

And declared celibacy was the only way to spiritual truth 

That marriages throughout history

Have been about the economic empowerment of men

And a means of controlling women

Their bodies

And reproduction

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

Was the most readable 

The traditions didn’t speak to me 

The white dress, the rings, the vows,

Bows on chairs. 

I hate, with a strange passion, chairs covered with white fabric and bows. 

I just wanted to marry my love

And live happily ever after the end. 

I begged my first fiance to elope 

Save the trouble and expense and drama

Instead we broke up. 

Nearly three years later

I nervously told Aaron

I didn’t actually want a wedding

He was thrilled. 

And so after a very long wait
And most of the year apart
We finally became husband and wife.

We got married on a Monday 

Because it was the first day we could

After applying for the marriage license. 

I wore a dress 

I’ve worn a hundred times 

And will hopefully wear a hundred times more 
Aaron wore a collared shirt 

We both wore smiles. 

We drove to the town hall in Aaron’s car

We walked inside the building

And because we live in Colorado

We did not require witnesses

We did not require a ceremony

Just the intention to be legally bound

We signed our names

Sealed it with a kiss, and, 

We were married.

We called our families
Wrote to our friends
And shared a dinner that we cooked together
It was quiet and lovely
And outside, the snow was glistening. 

The end. 

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 

My Funny Valentine

My boyfriend lives over the ocean
My boyfriend lives over the sea
We cannot celebrate Valentine's in person
So I shall resort to blogging

Lame!
My blog
Nor all the inspiration and joy it brings
Is in any way
Comparable to my love

This is a story
It is a love story
Duh. It's Valentine's Day.
Though, to be honest
Even if we were in the same vicinity
We wouldn't be celebrating
Because
Honestly
We tell each other we
Love each other
Every single day
And we don't need no
Day of commercial
Triviality
To say what we feel

But that's not what
I wanted to write about.
I wanted to write about
How crazy it is
That we even found each other
Because statistically
And with all the people in the world
Isn't it crazy
That it is possible
For two people
To even meet
Despite growing up
On opposite sides of the planet
And having completely different upbringings
And living completely different lives
And to have enough in common
And have enough spark
To want to spend large amounts of time together
Yet alone
Be in a long distance relationship

Here's the story
Girl meets boy
They fall in love
And decide
That despite the ocean between them
And despite all promises to themselves
That they would
Remain Single For the Forseeable Future
They'll call each other
Boyfriend and Girlfriend
And then
They call each other
Every single day
And say
Those three magical
Cliche-ridden
When they're true they're overwhelming
The most important
The freest
The most wonderful of words

I love you

And while Cinderella and her prince
Did live happily ever after
The point is, gentlemen,
The lived.

The end.

On the Steps of the Palace

Imagine one day you’re in London 

and you’re Living The Dream! 

You’ve wanted to be an actress your Whole Life

And suddenly here you are!

At one of the top drama schools in the world!

And every day you climb the steps to the school and 

Literally engraved into the rise of the steps

Are the names of people who’ve been here before.

People who have “Made It”

In the profession

This crazy business like no other.

Because what would it be like if your dreams actually came true?

What if you grew up and actually got to be who you wanted to be?

What if you were Mary Donaldson, an account manager from Tasmania? And what if one day you were in a pub in Sydney and this really attractive guy starts flirting with you and you think, “Gee, I like this one.” And you hang out for a few days, and the air is warm and the sky is blue, and it’s all rather festive because it’s the Olympics, and a few days later he turns to you and he says, “By the way, I’m the Crown Prince of Denmark. If you like me, like, like like me, you’re going to have to renounce your citizenship, learn Danish, and promise to bear my children. In exchange you get to a princess. Like, for real.” What do you do in that situation?

When people talk of Living The Dream, they don’t mention the self-doubt, or the worry, or the anxiety. 

Or that actually living the dream feels and looks different to what you expected. Or that it could even be better than what you've imagined your whole life, and that’s the overwhelming part?! 

Did Mary sit in her room one night and pour her heart out to her best friend and say, “Ohmygod. I don’t know. I mean he’s wonderful. And I really love him. But he’s a prince?! An actual prince?! Isn’t that ridiculous?!”

Because what if you are, 

What a prince would envision?

Although how can you know

Who you are till you know

What you want, which you don’t?

You know what you want. And you want to be an actress. And one day out of the blue, without any guide, a chance to audition fell into your lap, and you seized it, and it worked out well, and you moved to London. And after all this training, you want to write and dance and sing and act and tell stories and have someone with money pay you to do it. And you want to reach out to people to make this world a better place. And you want to talk about what’s going on around you in an interesting and theatrical way. Because nothing else excites you like that idea. Literally no other job in the world has as much appeal. 

You’re here. And you’re Living The Dream. And as Sondheim’s Cinderella says, yes, “Sometimes it’s scary... And you have to wary.” But you keep going. And trust, trust, trust that the universe knows what it’s doing with you. Because one day, you just might end up not just on the steps, but inside the palace, and it just may be wonderful.

The end.

Tangled

http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/tangled/#/home/

Ah the magical world of Disney. It has received many criticisms over the years. That Walt was a controlling, conservative, women-belong-in-the-kitchen-and-chained-to-a-man kind of guy, that the corporation treats its employees badly, that it fills children's minds with unrealistic expectations about life and love. As an eighties baby, it's almost in my genetic code to love Disney. I grew up with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. These movies are under my skin. The heroes and heroines and tunes are a part of my very being. 

In recent years, Disney have churned out a few great films. Wall-E was beautiful. Any film where the world is saved by a robot watching Michael Crawford croon out “It Only Takes a Moment” on repeat is a winner in my eyes. But the message of Wall-E was spoilt by the plastic land-fill filling paraphernalia that inevitably followed the film. Enchanted was fabulous. It humorously captured the magic of Disney at its escapist, all singing, all dancing, all glorious technicolor best (though I will never understand why they cast Idina Menzel in a non-singing role. That’s just ridiculous). 

Today, I saw Tangled. And it was magic. It made me cry. It made me laugh. At twenty-something, Disney still has me oohing and ahhing at a cartoon. The girl twirling in the meadow, the lanterns floating through the sky, the wild chases through medieval Europe. The re-telling of a fairytale with plenty of feminist, post-modern self-referential punch. The score, by that genius of film music, Alan Menken, though not particularly memorable is beautiful. The throw-away lines and psychological break downs provide plenty of adult humour. It is Disney doing what Disney does best. 

Yes, it is escapist. It is a land where the concepts of republicanism or fear do not even exist. The environment is still in tact. Girl can meet boy. Boy and girl can fall in love and have adventures. There is sunshine. There is love.  And your dreams come true. And you live happily ever after. Is Disney filling me with false hope that life can be so sweet? Perhaps. But it is nice to have hope. And it is nice to believe, even if only for a couple of hours in a darkened cinema, that love and beauty and inspiration can win over darker forces. And that is the magic of Disney. 

Superforest Humanifesto

Hello! This blog is being born for the following reasons. 

1. The inspiration to just write
2. Inspiration from the lovely folk over at Superforest.org. Superforest states that to be happy one should do three things: 1. Read the Humanifesto 2.Make things 3.Start a blog. I couldn't agree more. And here we are. 
3. Inspiration (and support) from my friends and family who have requested/suggested I keep writing. This is as much for you as it is for me. 

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "inspire" comes from the Latin in + spirare: "to breathe". Which happily ties in with one of my favourite movies of all time, "Ever After" and the BIG moment when Danielle arrives at the ball to tell Prince Henry the truth. As she stands at the entrance, she tells herself "breathe, just breathe". Good advice for life's big (and small) moments. 


So this blog shall be about things that inspire, excite, and are beautiful. 


I hope you enjoy.

Much love,

Luisa