"You Can Count On Me”

Graduation Ceremony

Instructions (Reading, Followed by Victory Dance)
Please read these instructions through completely before preceding. Please do not review the “Reading” (below the line) ahead of time.

This can be private or you can invite a few friends and/or family- whatever you both feel more inclined to do.

1) On a separate device than the one you'll be reading from (hopefully one you can connect to your sound system or at least a little speaker), have the John Schmidt song, below, ready to play on repeat at a lower volume during the reading to each other, and then louder for the dance.

2) Make sure your phones are on airplane mode and your T.V. is turned off.

3) Lock the doors, put your cars in the garage and turn off most of the lights so no one knows you’re home.

4) Light 2 or 3 candles in the room you’ll be using for the ceremony.

5) Husband: With whatever device you’re using nearby to read from nearby, take your wife’s hands- with your hands under hers and read “You Can Count On Me” (below) - maintaining whatever eye contact is possible, given you are reading the script.

6) Wife: Reverse position- placing your hand’s under your husband’s, and read “You Can Count On Me” (below).

7) After the two readings, without any conversation, turn up the Jon Schmidt song (or one of your own favorites) and slow dance.

💖 Reading

I see now that you are not in the way of the happiness I’ve sought.

You are the way.

You’re just what the Doctor ordered- just who I needed to love, and just who I’ve needed to be loved by.

So, no matter how I feel from day to day- notwithstanding my inclination is to live in disappointment, I promise you now, that if you will do the same, I will continue to love you and serve you with all my heart.

I will lift you, grow with you and take care of you. I will come to know you- every part of you- every little feeling- every dream- every fear and every yearning.  I will hear you when you need to be heard.  I will see you when you feel invisible.

I will hurt with you when you hurt, laugh with you when you laugh, learn to care about what you care about and learn to do and say the things that make you feel the most loved.

But more so, I will be patient with you as you learn to love me.  Because I know it’s not always easy to love me.

Thank you for your love. Thank you so much for your love. I do feel it.

Thank you for being my partner.  Thank you for our marriage— a marriage that is giving me a chance to find my Heavenly Father in a way I might not ever have been able to— to feel the peace He knows, and in a small sense, to be the love that He is.

So you can count on me. You can count on me to find you if you get lost and to love you when you don’t feel lovable, because I have always loved you, and I will always love you.

I will always be here- in bitter or sweet, in the good times or bad, in life and in death, I will be here-- and in being here, give more to you, to our children, to God and to everyone on this planet, than I ever could have, in any other way.

You can count on me to love you.