After several years of wondering if I would ever hear the song "Because We are in Love (The Wedding Song)" sang by Karen Carpenter again, I came accross the lyrics and this video from YouTube. It was such a pleasant surprise.

     Over twenty years ago (goodness, where did time go?) my friend Beth introduced me to this song and I fell in love with it. Later, I found out that my brother had a record album (entitled Made in America) by the Carpenters and this was the last song in that album.

     Anyway, back then, I told Beth that I would like for her to sing that song at my wedding. No, I was not getting a marriage proposal, but I wanted to get married by August 8, 1988 because 8 is a lucky number. What would be more lucky than getting married on a date with all 8s (8/8/88 ), right?.

     I had the date but I did not have an answer to the question "to whom?".  .

     August 8, 1988 passed and I did not get married. Still, my friend Annette would never make me forget about this 8/8/88 wedding plan of mine. She even mentioned it to David .

     I forgot about that song for many years until one day, a former student of mine told me that she and her group are getting invitations to sing at weddings. I asked her if she was familiar with the Wedding Song by the Carpenters and she said no. She requested me to sing the song but, because I cannot carry a tune even if my life depended on it, she could not make head or tails with what song I was referring to  .

     Since then, I would occassionally look for this song in any tape or CD by the Carpenters that I came accross with but I had no luck in finding it.

     Last night, for no reason, I remembered this song and surfed the internet for its lyrics. To my delight, I did not only find the lyrics, I also discovered this videoclip with Karen Carpenter singing my favorite wedding song.

     The song is about a young woman who is about to be married. It has three parts. First, she was reminiscing the fun of her childhood days and marveled at how she went from a child to a young woman in a blinking of an eye. Second, she went to her mother to seek her counsel. Third, learning from her mother's wisdom, she talks to her husband and expresses her confidence in their love.

     There is something beautifully touching, almost sacred, about the image of a mother giving counsel to her daughter as the latter prepares to enter into married life. The mother is passing on to her daughter the lessons that she had learned as she fought the good fight of life. The daughter, taking to heart her mother's advice, completely aware that she would soon be entering through the same tunnel her mother went through; and finding comfort in the thought that she has her mother's words of wisdom as her guide through that tunnel. This was the image that made me fall in love with that song.

        Because of the circumstances prior to my wedding, I did not get the benefit of my mother's counsel because she was halfway accross the world. There was no wise older woman to pass on to me her words of wisdom.

     Instead, I knelt before my altar and sought the counself and blessing of the Blessed Mother. She gave comfort my anxious heart.

     Then I had a conversation with myself. The "about to be married me" had a talk with the part of me that had "fought the good fight and had learned some wisdom from the experience". The "about to me married me" was counseled to trust herself, to trust in the goodness of Life, and to trust in the Love that had brought her to this foreign land to marry the man who came to her life as an answer to a prayer.

     I still remember those two conversations as clearly today as that time over two years ago. 

     I did not get married on  8/8/88. Beth did not sing at my wedding,  but, as the lyrics of the song go, I did find "a place to keep my home forever". David is that home and yes, we are in love.

     I hope you too will find this song as inspiring as I did and that you can sing it much much better than I can,  .

    Because We are in Love (The Wedding Song)

Children
It was more fun to be children
We just took life as it happened
Run thru the days
Don't look behind

Over wink of an eye and it's over
What a surprise to discover
We were people ourselves
What kind of people did we want to be
No answer ever came to me

I didn't sleep at all last night
Mom, I've come to you like yesterday
About today
Mom, I'm afraid
Hon, come and sit by my side
Listen to me
Words come so hard
But what my heart says
I will give you

Because you are in love
Your eyes begin to open
As if you had awaken from a sleep
Because you are in love
You use imagination
And lose your concentration
When someone drops his name
You're back in his arms as always
Your day-dreams work out that way
It's all just a trick your mind plays
The more love grows
The more it says the same

(Same little girl who's frightened)
But I love him so
(Same little girl who's sure)
That she loves him so
(Sees with a woman's vision knows what a woman knows)

Because we are in love
We reach for our tomorrows
And know we won't be lonely
In laughter and in sorrows
Where love abides
There is the place we'll keep our home forever
You and I
Because we are in love

Where love abides
There is the place we'll keep our home forever
You and I
Because we are in love