PROBLEM SOLVED
It was ten minutes before noon…almost time.
She stood watching in quiet contemplation as the Sisters helped Maria with her veil. She could vaguely remember a couple weddings in her life. She remembered her cousin Martine's wedding mostly because as a child she thought the bride was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. And yet, this woman before her eyes, standing expectantly as they arranged her train, surpassed that impression by far.
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
It wasn't too long ago that Maria flitted about the Abbey in her postulant dress. She would receive multiple complaints a day about her… sliding down bannisters—I'm sorry, Reverend Mother, but it seemed faster!—or hollering across gardens and dinner tables – I'm sorry, Reverend Mother, but I thought the Sister was hard of hearing! – Oh, and the singing!—But God made the birds to praise Him whenever and wherever! Isn't our praise more precious to Him? - No room or hall was sacred enough to keep her from singing!
She couldn't deny that the last ten days were the craziest the Abbey had ever known. Maria arrived to prepare for her marriage to the Captain, not her wedding. Still, the wedding preparations followed her anyway. No matter how hard the Sisters tried to make the dressmaker understand the need for peace and quiet, she arrived with a full entourage almost daily, insisting she needed to spend time with the bride for last minute fittings and alterations.
If any of it flustered Maria, she never showed it. She spoke to the seamstresses with confidence and decisiveness. The girl the Reverend Mother knew never would have been able to stand still a minute for the process they put her through, but Maria did it with amazing poise and grace.
"Maria, when we come back tomorrow…" the dressmaker began after the third day of such nonsense.
"Oh, you won't be coming back tomorrow, I think. The dress fits perfectly. You've done an amazing job, Madam. I thank you so much for your hard work."
"But…"
"I've imposed on my host's kindness so much already and it's time to let the Sisters have their peace back. You may return the morning of the wedding if you wish, but I don't think it will be necessary."
"But…"
"The dress is simply beautiful, Madam. I'm sure to get many compliments. I'll be sure to praise you to everyone. Goodbye."
Before her very eyes, she saw Maria shed the last vestiges of that boisterous girl. All lingering doubts about her ability to become a baroness were erased. She knew her place and she handled the bedlam with such confidence.
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
"The Untersberg kept leading me higher and higher, as if it wanted me to go right through the clouds with it."
She was a flurry of motion, scurrying about, never too long in one place and her mind always somewhere else. Her heart was always willing to do what was asked, but she was easily distracted.
Yet if the sunset was vibrant, or the flowers were in full bloom, she could be caught being still and quiet. In those rare moments, she noticed a kind of wonder in Maria, a longing for something she spent her life trying to define for herself.
Almost noon, almost time.
She watched as Maria presented herself, her face serene and her eyes… there was longing, but not for the unknown. She wanted a blessing because the task before her would require a lifetime of God's favor.
"Seven children, Maria!" Sister Berthe said with a hint of amusement one day during a meal. "They will need a mother, not a playmate. It seems to be a bit like putting a mouse in charge of the cheese." Maria didn't blink.
"Those children are desperate for a mother," she answered sincerely. "I love them as if they were my very own. But what you don't seem to understand, Sister Berthe, is that I need them as much as they need me. They're my family now."
As Maria knelt before her, she waved her hands over her. "God bless you, my child, and help you in the days ahead, as you embrace your new life as a wife and mother. May you always be bound together in love and faith, to bless God together in time of joy and to seek Him in time of sorrow."
How do you find a word that means 'Maria'? A flibbertigibbet? A will o' the wisp? A clown?
The abbess stood back as an over eager nun ran to the door to the courtyard and opened it for Maria. The bride smiled at her and marched through, leading them all toward the cathedral. She walked slowly, reverently. She was elegant in her satin gown. It fit her beautifully, made especially for her.
"It's easy to like Maria, except when it's, uh, difficult."
"I love her very dearly, but she always seems to be in trouble, doesn't she?"
No one could find her that day she decided to send Maria to be a governess. She wasn't anywhere she should have been, and in none of the places she shouldn't. It wasn't the first time Maria vanished into thin air, only to reappear right before dinner. As she discussed the wayward postulant with some of the others, their quiet conversation was shattered by the sound of a door flying open. Hurried footsteps grew louder as Maria raced across the courtyard, stopping dead when she realized she was found out. Her shoulders dropped and her eyes rolled and then she sauntered away almost comically. She knew she was in trouble. Again. When she was out of earshot, the abbess heard a loud grunt from the mistress of novices.
"What did I tell you? A clown."
Maybe that was why she never could simply walk as a postulant, the Reverend Mother mused. She was wearing the wrong dress.
Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her. Many a thing she ought to understand…
They reached the cathedral and paused at the gate, the point where the Sisters were not allowed to cross. They were cloistered, separated from the world. They took vows and eschewed worldly pleasures. But today they all crowded against the iron bars as if watching their childhood fairy tales comes to life in front of them.
Maria came to them so alone. Orphaned as a child and raised by a guardian with little to no interest in her future, there was only one person Maria had to ask for a blessing and permission to wed. She was honored at the time, but eventually it dawned on her that there was certain things Maria needed to know before entering the covenant of marriage. Unfortunately for Maria – dear, sweet, innocent Maria - that task fell to a nun.
She didn't mean to spy on the couple, but they were lingering at the Abbey entrance as it was time for her to check the doors and locks. They were shadows in the moonlight. He held her gently at the waist while her hands rested on his chest. She looked away as they leaned toward each other for a kiss. When she glanced again, they were still kissing.
"Maria, I better let you go now. It is late and I don't want you to be in trouble with the Reverend Mother." The Captain raised a hand slowly to her face. She watched as Maria tilted her head to rest her cheek in his palm.
"I can't wait until this is over. I don't like saying good night and then watching you walk away."
"It won't be long," he reassured her. "Two more days."
"The days aren't the problem, darling," Maria said sadly. "My days are full. It's the nights that are the hardest. My mind can't stop thinking about you, and the rest of me… wants to be with you."
"Soon, and then forever," he answered, his voice heavy and low.
"I never knew it could be like this," she continued, taking his hands in hers and taking a step back. "I never knew how right it would feel to become your wife. Will it always feel this way, do you think? Even after we…"
"Maria, I love you," was the tender reply. "I'll take care of you. We'll take care of each other."
"I love you, too. I'm not afraid."
She never did sit Maria down to explain things. She was about to marry a good man, a kind and gentle and honorable man who loved her. And she loved him. There was no need for it.
How do you make her stay and listen to all you say? How do you keep a wave upon the sand?
Noon. It was time.
"It seems to be the will of God that you leave us."
"Oh, no, Mother, please don't do that. Don't send me away!" Her eyes widened in fear. "This is where I belong. It's my home, my family. It's my life!"
The music began. Maria turned and looked back one last time. One journey was ending and another about to start. The girl who was tossed about on the sea of her life had found her solid ground. Her smile was soft. Her eyes sparkled, bright and clear.
Maria turned and took her first step, then another and then another. The aisle in the cathedral was mercilessly long for a bride, but for those she left behind, it meant that much more time for them to consider her still theirs, to cherish all that she was when she was with them and to admire the person she was becoming… step by step.
"Reverend Mother? May I ask you something?"
"Of course, my child."
"How did you know?"
"How did I know what, Maria?"
"That I would find it, that I would find the life I was meant to live?"
"I only knew that God had a plan for you and you had to leave here if you were to ever find out what it was. Tell me, are you disappointed that you weren't meant to be a nun?"
"No, Mother. This isn't where I belong. I belong with the Captain. He is my home now. My family. He's my life."
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?
She watched as a hand reached down to Maria, lifting her to the place by his side. She knew the story of Captain von Trapp. He lost his way when his wife died. Then Maria entered his life and it was like worlds colliding. She considered it a miracle that Maria wasn't deposited back at the Abbey that very night. But in the end, the real miracle was that one heart overflowing with all her love to give found the one heart that needed to receive it the most.
"I can't believe that is our Maria," Sister Margaretta whispered.
"Are you sure it is?" laughed Sister Berthe quietly. "It is very hard for me to believe that beautiful woman getting married ever gave us a single problem."