Chapter 11May these vows and this marriage be blessed. May it be sweet milk, this marriage, like wine and halvah. May this marriage offer fruit and shade like the date palm. May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day a day in paradise. May this marriage be a sign of compassion, a seal of happiness here and hereafter. May this marriage have a fair face and a good name, an omen as welcome as the moon in a clear blue sky. I am out of words to describe how spirit mingles in this marriage.
—Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, thirteenth-century Persian Sufi mystic
9600 BCE
Northern shores of the Black Sea
A slightly overcast morning with a little sun peeking through. Cool temperatures, but Nanshe is always warm from the love of her family, she thinks as she bundles the tall grass she and
