Fifteen Roaring Years
Today is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the fifteenth anniversary of the day I wed my beautiful bride. It is, as I have said before, a “moment when everything changed, celebrated on a day when everything changed”. It’s important to mark those changes in our lives.
I realized a couple of weeks ago that Francine actually changed the trajectory of my life not just once, but three times: when we married, when we came into the Church, and when she introduced me to the splendour of the Camino de Santiago. Had any of those not happened, the arc of my life would have been very different indeed!
Francine and I have a funny tradition. When I proposed to her, I distracted her for a moment by the gift of a wooden Welsh love spoon. While she was oohing over it, I fell to one knee and took out the ring.
On our wedding day in 2008, I gave her another. Each anniversary since then, I’ve done the same. The wall is starting to fill up!
They are small tokens of a great love. In the Welsh tradition, the various carvings have different meanings. In addition, there are the meanings which we ourselves give them.
That spoon in the photo with the two spoon-y bits is the one I gave her when I proposed – two becoming one. The funny crooked one to its right was our wedding spoon. We’re both a little twisty!
These spoons are just one example of physical commemorations given on a chronological commemoration. So that in times both difficult and beautiful, we can look up at the wall and remember what it’s all about. And when you think about it, this is also why we give gifts at Christmas. It’s why children still put their shoes (or socks!) out for Saint Nicholas.
In fact, this is why we celebrate feasts of the Lord and of the saints at all.
It’s the reason we have icons and statues as well. To remember. To be reminded, for instance, that on this day nearly two thousand years ago, the Pharisee enforcer Saul was driven to the ground by the voice of the Lord, to arise (in time) as the Apostle Saint Paul.
And having been reminded, to celebrate that person or that event, because these people are our family – the Communion of Saints – and these events are part of our family history and tradition.
