#189: I'm a married man

On Saturday, I married Sarah Elizabeth Lloyd. 

At 1.30pm in the Queen Elizabeth Room of Stoke Town Hall, we exchanged vows, placed rings on our fingers and signed our certificate of marriage. 

We were witnessed by 22 others. Friends and family. Not all of our friends, or all of our family, those that we felt we wanted there for the ceremonial part of our wedding. 

The music played, guests smiled, cried, laughed and hugged. 

We giggled, took it seriously, held hands, fidgeted nervously and spoke with clarity. 

We walked out to applause, cheers and confetti.

Then we dined, we drank and leisured together into the beautiful starry night sky. 

I can’t write a long newsletter about marriage yet, just these words here, because I still feel like I’m getting married. 

The celebrations are not over, my feet are not on the floor, I’m still way up high in this bubble of Lloyd-Routledge love. 

I’d like to leave you with one thing though, before I stop typing with my new ringed finger. A poem I read at our ceremony, a poem I wrote on Love. I’d like to read it to you. 

It’s what I’ll leave you with, this poem on Love and some Crazy Talk below. Perhaps next week I’ll share more of our story on how we got married. The rituals, the ceremony, the intimacy we wanted, the money, the stress, the social pressures of weddings and more. That will all come soon enough. For now though, just Love and Crazy Talk. 

Cheers, 
James x

Love

Love hard
Love often 

Yourself
Others 
The world around you 

Those closest to you 
Those nearest too 

Love, 
even when it’s hard to 

Those parts of you that you don’t want to 
And when you see them in others 

Love those too

Try to love 
To see 
To hear 

To place your feet in another pair 

Love your brothers
And your sisters 

Love the life we have all been gifted 

Love the air 
The sounds 

And the world all around

Love loving 
And that we can love 

Try to love what you see in the mirror

Or if not 
Try to see it clearer

Love is our air 
Our currency 

Without love what would we be?

Love, because
Because to love 

Is what makes us, us. 

What I'm writing

•  Crazy Talk #8

• #188: Me and my phone

• #187: Addicted to Busy

• #186: Crazy London

• #185: What the f*k are you looking at?"

• #184: Dealing with criticism

What I'm reading

• I write reviews of what I've read on Good Reads. Last review is of "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name" by Audre Lorde. 5*.

• I'm currently reading Lord of the Rings Trilogy and will be for a while.

My book - 'Mental Health at Work'

• You can order my book 'Mental Health at Work' from Amazon, Bookshop.org,  Foyles, Waterstones & Audible.

Who am I?

I'm Founder of Sanctus,  Author of "Mental Health at Work" and writer of this here Newspaper.

I write every week. A new blog post, poetry, reading resources and a creative journal of what I may or may not work on next.