Given on their Wedding Day (November 19th, 2016), this toast is posted here with permission from the couple. I am honored to have been part of such a beautiful and special day.
Love is a connection of authenticity and presence. I share with you how they inspire me in video and text below.
A Wedding Toast to Hector & Lisa (11-19-16)
Hello everyone. Family, friends, guests, loved ones.
My name is Joel Ying, and I am honored that Hector asked me to stand with him today as Best Man. I asked him: What exactly does the Best Man need to do?
He said: You just need to make sure that I show up.
… My work here is done! …
However, I also am here to toast Hector and Lisa, the beautiful couple, as they formally join their lives to start a journey of marriage together.
I have known Hector for several years, and most recently over the past couple years as his Tai Chi teacher, spending time together each week.
I can say: I’ve taught him everything he knows … about Tai Chi.
But he has taught me as much as I have taught him.
He has graduated from Tai chi student, to being a Tai Chi teacher himself.
Our lives have intersected in multiple circles: we share the same yoga studio, Kirtan singing group, and “family dinner”. From time to time, I would have friends gather to have “family dinner” … where we would affectionately call him “grandpa.”
All of you know that Hector is friendly and open-hearted. My favorite memory of him is at Love Yoga studio. We were sitting in the lobby. And a beautiful young girl comes in. (This is before Lisa.) She was much younger, and he was playful as always.
He says, “Are you done?”
She looks at him confused.
I look at him confused.
Then he says, “Are you done? or are you just going to get more beautiful.”
And she smiles. Her face glows. And she does get more beautiful.
… I think to myself: “I would never get away with that.”
Or perhaps better said, “I would not have the courage to say that.”
Hector is friendly, open-hearted, playful.
He is a romantic – courageous in love.
This inspires me, and I hope it inspires all of you.
Hector and Lisa met for the first time right here at Unity, 2 years ago in a class on Prayer. Hector tells me on the last day of the weekly classes, he gathered the courage to give her his phone number.
And shockingly, he says, … she called him back.
They had a first date at the botanical gardens (actually “a meeting”, he says, a sort of screening to see if there would be a first date.) … and he remembers laying in the hammocks together, and he knew that this was special.
In the parking lot, they shared their first kiss.
Hector brought Lisa into my life at a “family dinner”.
I got to hear and see their amazing courtship.
They read poetry together.
Their favorite poem by Rumi: “I see my beauty in you. I become a mirror that cannot close its eyes to your longing. My eyes wet with yours in the early light. My mind every moment giving birth… I see my beauty in you.”
She joined him at yoga classes.
He went to her orchestra where she plays the violin.
They entered each others worlds.
I asked the couple what they love about each other.
Hector tells me: she is sweet, intelligent, and has a beautiful smile.
Lisa tells me that Hector makes her laugh. She loves his presence. He is kind, social, and “childish”… but she says she likes that about him. Maybe she said “child-like”? He calls it his “situational-comedy” type of humor. I haven’t figured out what to call it.
I think their Valentine’s Day gifts to each other sum up their relationship.
Lisa’s gift was a jar filled with pieces of paper where she collected the beautiful things that they shared together.
Sunset – walking on the beach with you; feeling the sand, seeing the beautiful colors of the sky.
Pumpkin cake. magically delivered to my doorstep. Thoughtful and delicious.
Unity – knowing we have a spiritual place to share
Hector gave her the electronic version. He printed out text messages that they shared together. He would send texts for her to wake up to in the mornings.
“I’m catapulting kisses to you across US-41.”
Their story inspires me, and I hope inspires you as well, on the depth of heart connection possible. Courageous in love.
This is the love that they share together, and the love that they share with all of us today.
I asked the couple what they would want you all to know.
Lisa told me: “You are all threads in a beautiful fabric of love that has supported and carried them to this moment. And that they so appreciate your love, guidance and friendship.”
I would like all of us turn to the couple today,
to Hector and Lisa,
a toast,
“You are both threads of love in the fabric that supports and inspires us.”
May your lives together continue to be blessed.
May your hearts continue to grow together.
May your lives twinkle and your days continue to shine the light of love on all of us …. just as we do on you today.
To the beautiful couple – Lisa and Hector!