A Lifetime of Friendship and All that Ultimately Matters in This Life, Love

Time & Love - Two Things that Never Die 

Starting with a Poem:

You Stayed

A journey from 1979

my journey with you

my friend

you stayed,

Always and forever

you have been by my side,

throughout all this time

you have stood patiently,

During times when my life

pulled me in a hundred directions

you still stayed,

We have survived three decades of changes

from single girls

to married women

to the birth of children

there you stayed,

Through a thousand tears

and a million laughs

you stayed,

We are bonded in a such a way

that the word friend is too casual

we are sisters,

Distance may keep us apart

but sisterhood keeps us together

You can know I'm here

I can know you're there,

This gift of timeless friendship

can never be measured in miles

it's a treasured constant

Others may come and go

but my friend,

We stay

Inspiration Sometimes Comes from the Most Unexpected Places

Obviously, friendship is the inspiration, but the details of what led to this poem were unexpected.

The year was 2007, on Mother's Day. My family (kids, step-kids, hubby) had our normal get-together here at the house.

It was rather an event-filled day. About one hour before everyone arrived, I split my head on the edge of my youngest son's bed. I was so mad at myself! I ended up at the hospital for about 3 hours, and six stitches later was back home. My husband and kids pitched in and handled things; everything was under control. 

Anyway, dinner was great, and the night moved along nicely as usual with some watching tv (football, I think), one of my other sons playing guitar, the little one playing Xbox, and my stepdaughter, myself, and her hubby in the kitchen chatting it up. The conversation that night was really great. We talked about the Five Stages of Marriage I recently heard on the John Tesh radio show. It was pretty interesting. My hubby and I are definitely in stage 5. However, my stepkids were quite interested in assessing what stage their relationships were in. It was fun and quite comical.

Anyway, the conversation led to my stepdaughter paying me a nice compliment about why she believed my marriage to her dad was successful. I was grateful for her take on it but proceeded to tell her that wasn't the reason. She looked a tad surprised. So I said, "Do you want to know why our marriage is a success?"....you could have heard a pin drop.. both she and her hubby were waiting for me to give the "big secret," "the reason a marriage works," "the answer for all mankind"...lol...ok.not...I proceeded to give her the answer: "The reason your Dad and I have had a successful marriage of 22 years is that "We Stayed."

Through it all, I stayed. Through it all, he stayed: In sickness and health, for richer or poorer, in good times and bad. When there may have been reasons for others to think we shouldn't stay together, it didn't matter; we stayed - My personal experience taught me firsthand that love CAN survive almost everything.

Friendship Necklaces in three parts

What Inspired Me, Continued...

So, this leads me to this poem.

Nearly a month later, on the night before I was leaving to go out of town to visit my parents, I sat in front of my computer and began the night by listening to a beautiful song called Indescribable. No matter your faith or belief system, this song exudes love.

While listening, I began thinking about that conversation with my stepdaughter and about who else in my life has "stayed." That led me to my friend for whom this poem was written.

I started remembering when my friend and I met and what our journey of 29 years included. I started thinking about how many 19-year-olds today will have the same close friend 29 years later. I started thinking how rare this must be. 

With my friend's birthday approaching, this poem was my way of showing her my love and appreciation for "her staying"...through it all. 

So with the beautiful song "Indescribable, by Chris Tomlin" playing in the background, I opened up "Notepad" and started to write the short poem featured at the beginning of this article.

Today - UPDATES

Since writing this, 8 years have passed. My husband and I are still going strong, having recently celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. My friend and I are friends til the end, and I'm off to visit her for her birthday in a week. We continue to stay.

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Movie Review: A Good Marriage by Stephen King

I am not truly a Stephen King fan, although I do recognize his writing talent.  In fact, the reason why I am not a huge fan of his books is simply because his stories often scare me half to death.  That fact alone best demonstrates that he is an excellent writer of horror and suspense.

Since I joined Sling TV a few months ago, I am back to watching movies, TV series, and news again.  After a day of work, I find a good movie at home quite relaxing.  My husband and I enjoy watching movies together and we alternate who selects the movie for the evening.

Because I am a romantic at heart, I was drawn to the movie "A Good Marriage".   Because it was written by Stephen King, my husband enthusiastically sat down to watch it with me.  It was an excellent movie that we both enjoyed viewing, but I have to warn you, it still haunts me a bit.

Synopsis of "A Good Marriage"

This movie gets right to the heart of the story almost immediately and we were drawn into a world of suspense very quickly when the wife discovers that her husband is a serial killer.

I had never really considered how the wives of serial killers react or feel, especially when they are so totally clueless to the dark side of their spouse.  When she accidentally uncovered indisputable evidence that her husband was in fact the notorious killer "Beadie", she was forced to face the obvious and decide how she was going to react and respond.

Most of us sitting here would be thinking just call the police, but the story was so well written that I could easily understand the hesitance and denial, questioning how it could possibly be true that a loving and devoted husband and father could be the torturing, killing creature that was terrorizing women.

I was rather surprised by how the wife, after her initial shock wore off, logically made a plan and methodically carried it out.  She certainly proved to be her husbands equal when it came to being able to "act" normally while simultaneously setting the stage for "capturing" her own mark.

Since I never believe in spoiling the show for others when I review a movie, I will stop there and reveal no more than the basic plot.  Besides, this is a movie that you absolutely must see for yourself and follow the moment by moment details.  I would be cheating you of the magnificence of the author by writing more myself.

 

 The Actors in "A Good Marriage"

Joan Allen is the wife, Darcy.  Anthony LaPaglia plays the role of the husband, Bob.  Anthony LaPaglia is the perfect choice because he really does have that normal, nice guy appearance who anyone would trust, yet he is easily believable as a methodical serial killer.

Like LaPaglia, Joan Allen looks the part and she did an exceptional job of playing a calculating wife who is capable of her own deceptions.

Together, they make me believe we can never really know our friends well and we certainly have no idea what they might be capable of given the right set of circumstances.

My Rating of the Movie, "A Good Marriage"

I have seen what the critics say about the movie and I also see the star rating on Amazon.  However, I am not going to fall in line with others.  I would give this movie 5 stars.

I base my rating on the fact that this was a suspense thriller that I could watch without being grossed out.  Graphic images were certainly not necessary to scare me, or to make me sit on the edge of my seat.  I believe that is the mark of a truly outstanding writer, as well as believable actors.

In addition to that, I appreciated the thoughtful perspective of someone who is also a victim of a serial killer, but is more often considered complicit in the crimes.  I think we all want to believe the "Bundys" and "Dahmers" of the world have some "telling" personality traits that anyone close to them would easily recognize.  Because we think there is no way they could not have known, we often make the family members pariahs in the community.  Any movie that can cause me to evaluate my own thoughts deserves a higher rating.

I highly recommend this movie for any adult.  

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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