Do you feel like things aren't okay right now? Go to a wedding. This is my advice.

Maybe you're one of those people who is part of a wedding party every other month, who looks great in coral and is surrounded by a troupe of highly marriageable friends and family members. If you are, by God, keep on keepin' on.

I'm not. I almost never go to weddings. Basically all the weddings I've been to have been friends of my sister. I always get confused when people start banging their spoons on their glasses, start looking around for someone making a toast while the bride and groom kiss sweetly behind me. I'm always slightly late, a little underdressed, craning my neck from the back of the crowd.

But I went to a wedding this weekend, for the first time in a long time. It was up in the mountains, and for a couple of hours we wound around lakes and stands of trees and through those small strange lovely mountain towns.

We got there just slightly late, of course, and ran over a lush green lawn we weren't supposed to be running on to get to the edge of this sparkling lake, where the music was just starting up. My sister and I stood just against the edge of the crowd, shading our eyes from the sun, and what happened there was so unexpectedly beautiful and mysterious it made my heart hurt.

It had something to do with people being tender and honest with each other in the midst of everyone who loves them. It felt so safe and so dangerous at the same time, from my spot in the back and to the left. The groom was talking about how he loves her, how where she lodges, he will lodge, and he had to stop for a moment, his voice breaking. It took me long minutes to even become aware of my fingers pressed against my lips, something I thought I just did in moments of distress.

It all felt new and important, and it shifted my focus, made me not care about things that seemed like a big deal earlier. It made me remember things that were a little raw. It made me want to get up on a chair and cheer, but I'd gotten there late so all the chairs were already taken.

So here is my advice: Go to a wedding. This is not groundbreaking, but it just might fix something you didn't know was dragging.

If you need to fly across the country or buy an overpriced toaster for a bride you don't know too well or flat-out crash a wedding, that's okay. Do whatever it takes to witness two people doing something hard and beautiful that so many other people are too scared to do. Get there on time, so if you need to stand up on your chair and cheer, you will have one. You will walk away less scared and mad, I promise, and more likely to see parties everywhere you go.