Why I married myself…

I met some dear friends for lunch some time ago. They’d just returned from a long holiday overseas, and we were catching up on all our life news and stories from adventures.

“So what’s new with you Leonie?”

Well, I’ve been painting, laughing lots, went home for holidays, went to Goddess Camp, married myself, preparing for my exhibition…

“You’ve WHAT?”

I’ve been painting, laughing, went home for holidays, went to Goddess Camp, married myself, been preparing for my art exhibition…

“You MARRIED YOURSELF???”

Why yes… and this is my moonstone ring I wed myself with… pretty, hey?

“Ummm… can you please explain why? I mean, I’d normally think it would be a fairly crazy thing to do, but if it’s Leonie doing it, you must have a good reason for it..”

It’s fairly simple really…

We are so willing to search for Mr or Mrs Perfect, fall deeply in love with them, want to find out all their stories, their idiosyncrasies, their dreams, how they wish to live… We want to find out their favourite breakfast, the song they secretly dance to, how they look when they are sleeping… We want to discover their soul landscape, and revel in it… We want to lose ourselves in the Great Beauty of them, and watch them grow even more into their magnificent souls… We want to feel their hand on the small of our back when we are unsure, we want to feel their comforting words when our soul is searching for home, we want to feel understood, cherished and deeply loved.

We are so willing to stand in front of those we love, and proclaim our love to this Magnificent Other. We are so willing to commit to them, to tell them we love them, to promise to cherish, honour and adore them all the days of our life. We proclaim that we will listen to all their dreams and help them achieve them. I do, I do, I do.

What if we searched for the Magnificent Person inside ourselves?
What if we fell deeply in love with our soul landscape, our choices, our idiosyncrasies and life story?

What if we committed to discovering what we liked to sing loudly in the shower, how we like to eat eggs, how we hold ourselves when we hurt?

And why don’t we vow to love, honour and cherish ourselves first?

Why don’t we have a celebration of our self love, dress in our most glorious clothes, have dear soul friends surround us as we remember how to see the Divine in ourselves?

What if we feasted upon this self love, and what if we knew that there was all the love all in the world: enough love for ourselves, enough love to love another soul deeply, enough love to adore each soul in our lives?

So I did, and I do.

“And what did Chris say to all of this?”

He asked me how he fit into all of this.

“And, how does he?”

I told him my marriage wasn’t a monogamous relationship, and that I would still be taking a lover. His turn will come, but first I must love myself.

So that is the story of my marriage. That is my love story with myself. If this was a romantic comedy, the sun would be setting and I would be skipping down the beach with myself in hand, occasionally tripping, and always in fits of giggles…