I Look Hideous in Beige

My son is getting married.

That's Younger Son! As in....my baby. The last of the progeny. The child who gave me the illusion of my own youth even after it had long dissolved into middle age.

There is an old adage that states that the Mother of the Groom should just shut up and buy a beige dress.

Well...this blog's very existence should tell you that blending into the woodwork has never been a part of my persona, and besides I look hideous in beige.

Marriage.

It is a word and an act that carries such permanence and stability in a world that is full of tremendous fluidity and inconsistency. I am not at all surprised by Younger Son and His Young Lady's foray into wedlock. (As an aside, I need a new handle for her. I have toyed with calling her Future Daughter-in-Law, but it  is a mouthful and sounds slightly archaic. I am accepting suggestions.) He has always been the child who is most likely to crave solidity and balance. He is the son who always had a plan....for his schooling, his career, and now for his life partner. He likes and plays to traditional norms even though he might strenuously object to my characterizing him in this manner. "God, Mom. You make me sound so boring!" He is anything but. He is smart, talented, creative, easy-going, and so very comfortable in his own skin. A true gift that isn't often found in one so young. I am tremendously proud of him and the path he has chosen and of the strong, independent, outgoing, capable, and loving woman who has agreed to share it.

There will be a few blog posts upcoming about the wedding plans. It is an inevitability. When such a monumentous event grabs hold of a family, it becomes the focus. The Young Lady (Yup. That moniker really doesn't work any longer) has taken hold of the project with gusto. She knows her mind and has a definite vision of what she wants the day to be like. As for me? I will try so very hard to not be the meddling mother-in-law that brides tend to consign to the dustbins of family folklore with tales so vile that the Brothers Grimm plagiarized them. You all have my permission to slap me senseless if I get out of hand. Seriously. Do it. 

But I cannot remain silent about how wonderful it is to watch your children achieve this level of happiness. It is all that we as parents hope and pray for. They are so jubilant even through the haze and pressure of preparations. I know that the road will not always be easy and I know that life will present challenges that will at times seem insurmountable. But if they hold on tight to the love and connection they feel for each other, the ride will be thrilling. The wedding is the event, but the marriage is the lifetime.

I will have more to say as the year passes, but I can honestly promise all of you that it won't be coloured beige.