Mind Boggling

Sitting on the shores of the Atlantic, in the beautiful province of PEI I am sending out the following thoughts. Tomorrow is the big day. It has truly been a whirlwind of activity. When our daughter first got engaged and they announced the wedding date it seemed like we had forever to get ready. Suddenly it is here. Just like the summer that never was. It has come and is almost gone. From the outset they have asked me to be involved. Obviously said yes and never gave it another thought. Now that we are getting close I am getting really worried. I have been particularly emotional. I wonder why. After all it is only my daughter getting married.

As part of the wedding I have been getting prepared to add my two cents worth as I alluded to some time ago. Found an interesting quote today when I was researching further the difference between men and women. I suppose some of you may think I am consumed by that. Not really. Just aware that there is a difference and I like to do what I can to help. “Men like to socialize by insulting each other but they don’t mean it. Women socialize by complimenting each other but they don’t mean it either.” I am leaving that one alone. Might get me in trouble, if it hasn’t already.

As part of the ceremony, as weddings go, there is always a unity ceremony. Some years ago when my son got married they used wine. Mixed a red wine with a white wine. Signified a relationship that could not be separated. This go around there is a plan to use sand. It was neat to take my future son-in-law back to the old stomping grounds. A place that I played at as a child, a place that my kids played at. A sand hill that has provided a ton of fun for a lot of people. You see, the decision was made to use sand as part of the ceremony. So in some way shape or form we will be taking that out to PEI where, during the course of the wedding, that sand will be mixed with some good old red sand from PEI.

That is all good and well. But research it. An estimation has been done that would suggest that there are (approximately) seven quintrillion five quadrillion grains of sand on all the beaches in the world (that’s a 75 with 17 zeros behind it; i.e., 7,500,000,000,000,000,000). And in case you have difficulty wrapping your heads around that it has further been suggested that there are 100 stars in the Universe for every grain of sand on the Earth’s beaches. That is truly mind boggling.

What is my point? I have no idea. I know that life is like shifting sand. Never sure where we will end up. I know that life is unpredictable. But I also know that time is passing us by. I wished someone a happy birthday the other day. He looked at me and asked whether I was aware that I had never been older than I was that very minute. That is mind boggling. That was a week ago. That means I am even older than I was then. That is scary. That puts things in perspective. I need to re-adjust.

Watching young people, the next generation, enter into long term relationships is both mind boggling and reassuring at the same time. For lack of a better term let me call it the magic of love. Good to see. As for the rest of us, remember, life is not about the number of breaths we take but about the moments that take our breath away. Looking forward to having my breath taken away in the next few days. Also hoping I will survive that. Make it a good one.