With Love, from the Single Saints and Me
One year in college, a couple decades ago, my girlfriends and I decided to wear black on Valentines’ Day. We were all boyfriendless at the time, and Spring had hit early so couples were coming out the dorms like moths from a wardrobe. We rebeled against coupledom in all it’s sacchrine glory. And what else is a rebel to do, but wear black?
Many years later at graduate school a professor of mine asked me to tell her my life story. I told her all the basics: where I grew up, what my undergraduate degree was in, when I got married. When she asked me how old I was when I got married, and the age “23″ came out of my mouth, this wise woman nodded her head and said, “Oh, so you’ve never been single.”
No, I have never been single. I went straight from a small Methodist college, where (almost) everyone was not so much single as just not-married-yet; on to graduation; and then straight to “Here Comes the Bride.” I never lived a day in the life as a single gal.
But she had been a single woman, my 50-something thesis advisor, and many of my girlfriends have as well–either as women who have not married, or who have married and are single again. And there’s also those girlfriends who have had long-term partners and common law unions, only to find themselves on the single side of the chart once again.
These women do not live lives of bereavement. They are not bereft. And whether they are single by choice or by circumstance, all of them have built lives that are as full and rich as any woman with a ring on her left hand and someone else’s clothes in her closet.
So every year, on Valentine’s Day, I remember that year in protest-black, I recall that a-ha moment with my professor, and it prompts me to post this blessing. I wrote it out of love for St. Lucy, for my single friends, and for the passionate heart of St. Valentine. If you are single, I hope it is a gift to you today. Thank you for living lives of admiration, and for putting up with all of us who go all gooey under the influence of paper hearts.
With Love and Respect,
Rachelle
______________________
I bless you in the midst of your singleness,
In the ebb and the flow of it,
In the hot and the cold of it.
May you enjoy the gift of independence.
May you travel far and make brave choices.
May you find love within yourself,
In the arms of God,
And in the hearts of others.
I bless you in the name of Saint Lucy,
Single and Whole,
Who refused to marry at the demands
Of convenience and culture,
Proclaiming instead satisfaction with her singleness,
And in doing so lit the way for others.
I bless you in the name of Saint Valentine,
Brave and Kind,
Who brought marriage to those who desired it,
Healing to those who needed it,
And hope to those who forged the uncommon path.
I bless you in the name of the Great Divine,
She whom we call Wisdom,
She who knows your soul.
Amen.
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February 14th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I also have never been single, but have always found myself a little jealous of those who are. I wonder what single me would be.
February 14th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
A lovely poem/prayer. Happy Valentine’s Day!
February 14th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Thank you for that. It’s a lovely thought, to find a way to make this day mean something to those of us who are single.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
What an amazing blessing, Rachelle. Even as a woman with a ring on my finger and a closet filled with someone else’s clothes, I think I’ll borrow parts of that blessing for myself. Happy Valentine’s Day!
February 14th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Thank you. I don’t have a ring on my finger. And I’ve never received such a lovely blessing except perhaps at my baptism. I’m quite touched.
February 15th, 2008 at 5:59 am
this is a wonderful post…..how appropriate and lovely!
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 am
Thankyou. As a single 45yo woman who sometimes fails to see the blessing in singleness – thankyou for the reminder that there is blessing in every situation including this one.
I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to print it off, and stick it up on my fridge to remind me.
Kiri