Congratulations, Ben & Dara!

Once upon a time, there was a little boy. This little boy and his sister planted a small forest of pine trees at the edge of a field.

The trees grew and so did the little boy. He met a beautiful girl, got married, and had a daughter and a son. When the children were small, the man went back to the pine forest and built a little house, a lovely, cozy log cabin playhouse for them to play in. It had two stories and built-in bunk beds to sleep on.

"Daddy, cut the windows out in heart shapes," the little girl said. So he did. He looked around at the trees that he had planted, wondering at how tall and straight they all were. It seemed just yesterday that he was a little boy planting them, and now he was grown up, already with his own daughter and son.

The man had two more children, and they all had many hours of fun playing at the little house with their cousins and friends, spending the night in sleeping bags there, swinging on a hammock hung between two trees, and running around. It was a place of laughter. It was a place of peace.

The trees still grew, and before the man knew it, his children were grown. His son met a beautiful girl and proposed to her. She selected this special spot, where they had so many memories together, as the setting for their wedding.

Last Sunday, the wedding took place under the canopy of pine branches, amid the singing of the birds and the whisper of the breeze. Ben and Dara, many congratulations to you, and may the years only add to your happiness!