Help with a reading for a second marriage ceremony (to the same person!)

[FourArms]

My lovely MIL has asked me to do a reading for her marriage ceremony. She is remarrying my FIL after having been divorced for about 10 years.

When they split up he left her suddenly and she was heartbroken at the time. I think he was having an affair, and he subsequently bought a house and lived with a lady for a few years before having an affair with my MIL!

They have been back together for about 4 years now, so this is obviously something they've taken time to think about, and it has taken me a while to accept FIL back into my world again, but we're there I think.

I'm struggling to find a reading though. The ceremony will be in a hotel, and it will be a civil service. I would like to try and find something that acknowledges the history, but perhaps talks about fresh starts.

Any ideas?

x-posted to weddings

How about... 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me'...

I'd be struggling too!

?There's that horrible-beautiful moment, that bitter-sweet impasse where you know that somebody is bullshitting you but they're doing it with such panache and conviction...no, it's because they say exactly what you want to hear, at that point in time.?
― Irvine Welsh

This one's a little more optimistic

?You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfect - you aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break - her heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.?
Bob Marley

Oooh, very difficult, my first thought was Sheena Pugh, Sometimes, but it may be a bit less joyful than you wnat. I shall keep on thinking.

Sometimes

Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes step back from war;
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen to you

~ Sheenagh Pugh ~

How's this one?

If you stand beside me
Is it a dream, or reality?
Do I ask, 'Is it for a day or eternity?'
Could we dance in the snow
Or will we sit by the fire?
To look into my soul
And tell you how I burn inside.
So, touch my heart
For today and tomorrow.
I believe in what you say
And cannot see either doubt or shadow -
In your eyes nor in our way.

James A Coghlan

?To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.?

OR

From "Gift From The Sea"by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
"When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an 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."

Thanks for all of these. Really like the Gift from the Sea :)

Same love, different promises (try not to heave)

I'd have thought choosing the reading was the bride and groom's job.The gift sounds fine though, just surprised they aren't just giving you something to read if the ceremony means that much to them.

I suppose that she trusts I'll make a good choice? She can veto anything that she's not happy with as I'll have to run it via the registrar first, but so far she's said that she loves everything I've sent her! We thankfully have one of those rare fantastic MIL:DIL relationships. :)

GhettoPrincess - can't find the one you referred to... do you have a link? :)