In August I went to the wedding of a dear friend, someone who's like a daughter to me--a treasured part of my family. She was the tall one's first girlfriend (if you look for a tall teenager with a much shorter teenager in this slideshow from more than a decade ago--that shorter teenager is her).

As it happens, the person she married is a woman (a wonderful woman who seems like an *excellent* life partner). In the marriage ceremony, the couple expressed gratitude to those who had come before them, whose courage and activism made it possible for them to be legally wed. The wedding banquet celebrated some of those people, as well as others who are important to the couple. It was a mini education for me:





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Here's lovely evening light streaming into the banquet pavilion, and you can see one of the informational plaques to the right of the mason jar:



Everything about the wedding was beautiful, including the wind that rose up as they said their vows and the seagulls that perched on the roof ridge of the pavilion, a flock of guardian spirits.

The wedding took place in Ithaca, NY, a city that seems blessed with street art. Here is a trompe l'oeil mural whose archway beacons the viewer toward a verdant future--my wish for this couple.