Donuts.

I’m not a big fan of rumors, but when I hear one about donuts my ears do perk up just a little bit.

I’m at Alexa and Juan’s wedding. And there they are. Donuts. An entire table full of donuts. Some stacked high, others displayed on large platters. Donuts.

Having attended a fair amount of weddings over the years, I’ve never had donuts at the reception. Donuts took the place of the more traditional wedding cake. I do love cake, but donuts are as perfect as a dessert could ever be. As I munched on yet another donut I scored at the donut table, I started thinking about the traditions which make up what we’ve come to expect at ceremonies like weddings.

Weddings can often be pretty formulaic, almost an assembly line of sorts taking two committed people and merging them into a married couple. An assembly line built around a framework of traditions which are almost always expected to be upheld as part of that process even if those getting married perhaps didn’t honestly want to celebrate the most significant of their days in that manner.

Marriage is a sacred tradition. Not from a dogmatic standpoint. It’s far more significant than that. The voluntary union of two willing hearts committing themselves to each other for all their living days, no matter what those days may bring. In a world of the immediate and the disposable, such a commitment is elevated to even higher levels of sacred ground.

Alexa and Juan’s wedding honored that sacred tradition of marriage. But this wedding was their authentic interpretation of tradition expressed as a reflection of who they are and how they chose to celebrate their most important day. Because it was their day, their marriage, their celebration of their love for each other and of those who gathered to rejoice in their union.

Tradition expressed authentically.

Hence, the donuts.

At times honoring traditions can come at the expense of honoring our own authentic nature. We can often feel compelled and pressured to live a life in order to meet the traditional expectations which have been imposed on us by others. Or accepting the traditional limitations we may have placed upon ourself. Either way we live a life we know isn’t aligned with who it is we know we really are.

The authentic self, abandoned.

There is no greater commitment one can make to another than to commit oneself to another.

There is no greater commitment one can make to oneself than to authenticity express who it is you know you were created to become.

That sounds like a great tradition to me.

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

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