Humanist Wedding Ceremony Reading Inspired by Carl Sagan's Cosmos
My lovely wife, Joni, and I got married back in July.
I asked one of my close friends to do a reading for the ceremony and I spent a lot of time looking into what I would like him to read.
There was nothing that quite hit the hammer on the head, nothing that quite reflected what life and our partnership meant.
So I decided to write one. I started with a quote from the opening pages of Carl Sagan‘s Cosmos and from there I adapted it to have more significance to us and our view of the world.
I thought I would share it here, give it a home.
The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond what our minds can easily comprehend.
Lost somewhere between its immensity and eternity lies our tiny planetary home.Our planet is so astonishing, packed full of mountains, deserts, seas,
all the plants and animals, glorious wonders we can share.On the Earth walks mankind with all it’s faults to bear,
yet ever so exquisite with so much love and moral depth.May we remain grateful every day on Earth we live
for the brief but wonderous opportunity that all of life is.Although mankind is faulty, we continue to strive.
The sum of all thinking, all our accomplishments is love.From within one of the billions of species to walk upon this tiny spec in the universe
we find two imperfect people who want to share their short lives, living it as one.May this marriage take two fractional lives and make those fractional lives a whole.
May these partners build a better world for the next generation to come.May this union bring a new light to the sunshine, a new fragrance to the flowers,
a new beauty to the earth, and a new mystery to life.
9 Replies to “Humanist Wedding Ceremony Reading Inspired by Carl Sagan's Cosmos”
Thank you for giving this quote a “home.” My fiancé and I have been searching tirelessly for a reading for our wedding. The readings of Carl Sagan have always been an inspiration for us along our quest in learning about the world around us and our purpose in it. If you don’t mind we would like to use this as one of our readings at the conclusion of our ceremony. Thank you for sharing your love through this beautiful quote.
Wonderful to hear! It is lovely to see other people using such ideas in their relationships 🙂 All the best with the wedding ceremony and years of marriage ahead!
I want to also say thanks for coming up with such a beautiful passage. My fiance and I also wanted a passage inspired by Carl Sagan . I picked up Cosmos thinking it was already written out, but it didn’t fit a to be read at a wedding the way it was. Stymied, a google search luckily brought me to you. Assuming you’re cool with i, we’d also like to grace our wedding with this passage as the only one we’d like read. Thanks for coming up with this..Cheers!
G’day Bob! That’s fantastic! I feel privileged that I can help out 🙂 Carl Sagan was such an inspiration for me and his way of looking at the world is a great model if there ever was one. All the best for the event and all the years to follow!
Hi Luke,
As with Bob – I found your Carl Sagan inspired reading following lots of online searching and finally googling “humanist” “wedding” and “Carl Sagan”. It’s beautiful and inspiring. I hope it’s ok to use it during our Humanist wedding which will be in Scotland later this year – with a nod to your good self and Carl of course. Thanks for sharing!
Wonderful to hear! Have an amazing wedding (I’m sure you will) and best of luck for all the years ahead!
Thank you for sharing this beautiful quote! We used this at our wedding and there was not a dry eye at the ceremony. So many people told us how much they loved it too. Now I’m sharing it with my wedding clients, family, and friends!
So wonderful to hear Shannon! Hope you guys had an amazing time on your special day 🙂
Beautiful words … I am a marriage celebrant and would love to add this reading to my collection to offer couples. Are you ok with that? And how would be the best way to acknowledge the work? e.g. something like… ” (Name of reader) would now like to share a reading by Luke K Freeman, who was inspired by the work of Carl Sagan to bring together these beautiful words on love, humans and our infinite universe” ?