Ignore the lyrics: You can't pursue love. You don't find love. Love's not a thing to be kept or had; it's a doing word that you both have to work at. Love is a language expressed in deeds and so clear expression of your love best succeeds when you both discover what the other most dearly needs. So spend time planting daily deeds of love, every one a fragile seed.
Continue to listen day and night and learn what each other prefers and what you both like. And then, when you get it right you'll be answered by a unmistakable light in their wide glistening eyes. - Do it on a date. Do it with your mates. Do it when you're tired and it's heavy eyed late. Do it in the everyday mundane way you pair your own socks and clear away last night's takeaway. - Laugh often and have fun especially when you feel life has you on the run and be sure to surprise each other both regularly and often Maybe even invest in a pair of water guns. - Share the fragile thoughts you find at the forefront of your mind. Reveal your vulnerability, the hurt you feel when life's been unkind. - And in response to that revealed insecurity, ensure you tread carefullyΒ until you see the healing that comes from interlacing lovingly. - Speak your love every day. Articulate it come what may. And that way you'll ensure that it stays at the forefront of each of your todays, on the tip of your tongues so when you inevitably take a step wrong you'll both recall why you're together and why it's worth the endeavour that it takes to push through that unexpected foul weather. Love one another through that gale and sail on to meet the adventure that's yours to discover: Through the miles of your wherevers, for the duration of your whenevers, strong enough for your whatevers, standing together, forever relentlessly loving each other. - So may the Lord of your tomorrows bless you together. May the Lord keep you smiling whatever. May his face shine on you in all kinds of weather. And may He give you peace that will never cease to give you pause to thank Him for his grace forever. - And all the assembled people said AMEN.
Rather than offer my own advice to my son and his bride on their wedding day, I asked various couples who have a few years of marriage behind them to offer their thoughts on the ingredients of a successful marriage. And I then sought to weave them together. So this poem is the fruit of around 250 years of marriage.