BETWEEN YOU AND ME

You are here inside my laughter.
Thoughts of you are on my mind and wrapped around my heart.
You empower me to love with all I have, and to enjoy all that is good.
As I embrace each day with the promise of you,
I can’t imagine a day that is not filled with your smiles.

My life has been kissed by many blessings,
and because of you each day is a gift filled with grace, mercy and love.
I cherish the moments that bring us together,
and it is inside this space I realize I am home.

LORI EBERHARDY

Good Morning Digital Neighbors!!! Happy Monday ADD Irregulars, WSN Curators, Friends & Refugees at the Report, Misfits & Pham at Phetasy and all your Conversants, Lurkers, Seekers and Wanderers on Locals!

I think this morning's musing especially applies to most of you couples out there, but is not limited to couple relationships. Many of the good couples that I know come to mind, I see them embody the life described by Lori. As I have said often, after faith few things compares to good hearty laughter and humor shared among others. Victor Borge says the shortest distance between two people is either a smile or laughter. I guess it depends on who is quoting him.

Built upon that shared joy one is capable of finding deep connection, vulnerability, understanding, trust and a silence that bespeaks a level of comfort that does not rely on a constant stream of words. The real invitation is the arrive at the shores of actual listening to another and not constantly obsessing about what you want to say next. I know there are multiple fears of a pause that goes too long: "What if I forget the reality changing statement I was just going to make?" "I had something ready to comment, confirm or contradict that person mid-sentence, and now it is gone." "What if someone else says what I was just going to say?" The struggle is real. I am easily distracted, so things come and go before I often have a chance to say what I wanted to say. I do my best to trust if it was actually relevant and not just a desire to hear myself, it will come back around at some point.

While couples can exemplify what Lori is saying, good friends can come pretty close and some may say arrive at those shores more often than couples. Personal intimacy can get sidelined by physical intimacy. You wouldn't think so, but I suspect that happens more often than we want to acknowledge as a culture since sex is what it is all about. Assuming you can identify yours and find the proper medical treatment to get there. 😉

The "kissed with many blessings" makes one think of a more physical relationship, but I have many friends who have showered their love and life upon me. They have blessed me with their person and the gifts of their character. Friend, like love, has been used so readily and so frequently that its meaning have become somewhat threadbare. Call them what you will, but I hope you life has a few (there are never an abundance, and life makes it impossible to have too many) boon companions, kindred spirits, soul mates in your life. These are the persons who would suffer readily for you and for whom you would readily suffer. While they might be put out by your idiosyncrasies that raise their ugly little heads from time to time, in the end they are in your corner and at your side when challenges come a calling. Those rare souls make every place a home by their presence. More than a handful is probably impossible given time and the nature of vulnerability, but just one can make all the difference between a life that is lonely walk to the grave or a pilgrimage of discovery. Peace my Digitial Neighbors, know of my prayers for you known and unknown colleagues at Locals.

Autumn Barn curtesy of Vickie Ketch