Relax, close your eyes and listen.. All you will hear is the gentle sound of waves lapping against a sun kissed shore. A delicate sea breeze and orange tinged sunset greets young lovers, who longing for a romantic Mediterranean elopement, set their sights on a secret and secluded destination in Tuscany.
It is not only important to select readings which speak to the couple but text which also enhances the natural beauty of the scene. We were asked to select a suitably thematic piece and decided upon a romantic and wise excerpt from Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s inspirational ‘A Gift From The Sea.’
First published in 1955 this captivating essay style description of shell collection is worth reading in its entirety. Nautical imagery and sea metaphor communicate insightful observations upon the ‘ebb and flow’ of relationships.
Diane Rossi lends her voice to this visually stunning video by the professional videographer Marco Abbatangelo.
“When you love someone; you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity — in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern. The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now. Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits — islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.”
Original text & voice by Diane Rossi – Copyright © Blessings From Italy BFI European Independent Celebrants ®
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