I’m having post-wedding blues and it wasn’t even my wedding. My niece married this past weekend and it was a celebration out of a fairy tale. The bride and groom were young and beautiful, the ceremony heartfelt. Family and friends remembered those we loved who were no longer with us.

I thought I’d be cynical about weddings at this point in my life. I have failed relationships and one marriage under my belt. But strangely, I found myself so moved that I immediately posted photographs on my Face book page replete with gushing comments. I also posted a video from You Tube of Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End Of Love”—arguably one of the most romantic songs ever recorded.

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Dominique Issermann, known primarily for her fashion photography, directed the video. She and Cohen met on Hydra in 1982 and soon developed a romantic relationship. In fact, Cohen asked her to marry him but Issermann said NO. From what I understand about Cohen, he was a commitment-phobe so that to ask Issermann to marry was a FIRST. The end of the love affair perhaps explains Cohen’s decision to go to Mount Baldy and become a Monk.

Captured forever on the video of Dance Me To End Of Love, is the romance behind this romantic song… “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin,” meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved. The song stands as a testament to the love of Dominique Issermann and Leonard Cohen.