I am proud to have known you for 34 of your 50 years – I’ve had the privelage of being your husband for 29 of them. I remember thinking to myself when we were newly married ’what can we do to keep this wonderful feeling of passion and love that I feel inside me now,  throughout the future that we plan to spend together’. How can we keep this beauty in our hearts?

I know that at that time very few people expected that our marriage would last … with the sizable age difference between us .. with obvious culture and background difference … with a strange religious association --- with my 6 year old daughter in the picture etc. How could it work? I love a song by Isla Grant explaining you as "The keeper of my heart"

Our hearts are inclined to be complex .. I think of several heart issues that you and I have managed to ’keep’ through these years …. I am thankful for you being the ’Keeper of my heart’ in this things.

Passion and nearness is a most beautiful aspect of the heart .. It is the amazing icing on the cake, but significant is that it is not the cake. It is one of the most wonderful gifts of life … but it wasn’t meant to take us over the steeper hills in relationship. It has other functions.

Our common dreams and hopes for the future are a significant ’keeper of the heart’ .. we’ve had dreams for the life we strive for since the very begining of our relationship … to keep them alive we have had to adjust them somewhat to the realities of our existance … we have attained some of these things -- but we still have them, and these dreams grow as we go don’t they?

Another keeper of the heart are the loves in our lives that we have in common --- five of them are in place here tonight .. another is in London. I can’t over-estimate the amazing value that these things have had as ’keepers of our hearts’ in every aspect of our lives.

To me our hearts are also greater than each other .. I appreciate the ’keeping’ power in your acceptance of the things important to me that are not important to your heart. – and I hope that you feel my trust in your affections for things that are not important to me. A practical example is your love for dance and music (and wine!) that are outside my major interest … and Mireille I love you for your acceptance of my passionate involvement in sect exit and recovery issues that I know in reality bore you. These things do not separate us or compete with each other.

In any case I want you all to listen to a minute or so of Isla Grants song about ’The keeper of my heart’ - -- I love you.