I love this photo.  Here we all are:  black, white, Nepali, male, female, gay, straight, young, old.  This was taken by our dear friend and godfather of our girls, Derrill Bazzy, just after the wedding of my daughter Bimala to her new husband, Jeff.  Also here are Chandrika, sister of the bride, and Chaz, brother of the groom, and my beloved wife, Pam White.  Lots more pictures on Facebook.

It was a beautiful day.  A gathering of the tribe:   friends and family from Chicago, Minnesota, Martha’s Vineyard and all parts of the Northeast.

The real journey for our family has been the time travel that took place from Father’s Day, when we found out that Bimala was pregnant, til Saturday, when we all came together to celebrate the beginning of their life together.  That journey has been a lot like the trek that Pam and I did in Nepal in 1986.  Landslides, bedbugs, blisters, leeches, altitude sickness, views of impossible beauty, moments of intense quiet and meditation – the ultimate traveling improvisation and circus.  Harrowing and exquisite, sometimes in the exact same moment.

These past 70 days have been like that.  We have grown closer and more real – skin horse real – in that time. We are all worn smoother, polished, opened and restitched, and ultimately softer and more cuddly.

During the ceremony, Jo-Ann Eccher, wife of Derrill and godmother of the girls, spoke of spiritual education, or the gathering of all of the angels, and archangels, and the presence of Mary in all of her guises.  I am not a religious person, but I am a spiritual one.  And I wanted them all there, for Bimala and Jeff, and for all of us.