today i got to sing at the wedding of my dear friends sara and maia. i have sung at just about every wedding i have ever attended, a pattern that i just recently acknowledged, after years of thinking each time it had happened randomly. i am starting to realize it is perhaps my favorite offering. some of the folks who have asked me to sing have never even really heard me sing (though i am told i sing all the time under my breath).

today, on a hilltop in sonoma overlooking a vast valley with mountains in the distance, and a pair of hawks circling each other in the sky, sara and maia committed to each other. at the same moment, on another hill in the california sun, closer to the ocean, my friends hannah and win were wed. i love love, and i love the work that both of these couples have put into their relationships, showing that love is about committing to transform yourself again and again, with another.

getting to witness the ceremony today was particularly special, because though here in the state of california their wedding is not legal, sara and maia’s commitment is cosmic, and so much bigger than the temporary, regressive rulings of strangers. sara and maia are the kind of women who are generous and liberating for everyone who gets to be around them. being with all the generations of their families to celebrate the love they share was inspirational and reminded me that we are here to love.

here’s their wedding song:

drifting on a memory
ain’t no place i’d rather be
than with you – loving you

day will make a way for night
and all we’ll need is candlelight
and a song, soft, and long

glad to be here alone with a lover unlike no other
sad to see a new horizon slowly coming into view

i wanna be living for the love of you
and all that i’m giving is for the love of you

lovely as a ray of sun
that touches me when the morning comes
feels good to me, my love and me
smoother than a gentle breeze
flowing through my mind with ease
soft as can be when you’re loving me

love to be riding the wave of your love – enchanted with your touch
seems to me we could sail together, in and out of mystery

i wanna be living for the love of you
i wanna be giving (giving!) for the love of you

paradise i have within
can’t feel insecure again, you’re the key
and this i see
now and then i lose my way
using words i try to say how i feel
that love is real – oh love is real

now that i’m living for the love of you
you know that i’ve giving for the love of you
each and every day i’m living for the love of you
and all that i’m giving is for the love of you

(isley brothers)