How many souls throughout time have started off a line in a poem, a song or a letter with "I have loved you with an everlasting love." It seems silly to those who have never deeply loved but for those who have; the word "everlasting" resonates inside their soul because it's the only one that fits.
That word means I could live without you, but I don't want to. I will be okay without you, but I don't want to be. Yes, I'll be fine without you by my side, but that space when I am walking, sitting or talking at a party will seem empty without you in it.
It is a forever word that says, even if I can't have you, I will always love you "everlasting" in whatever way God allows. Together, apart, close by, far away, in dreams, in memories, but most particularly in quiet moments when my mind is free to roam.
Only those with an "everlasting" love understand why, even when surrounded by friends and loved ones, there is someone you quietly think about in the back of your mind, always. Because everlasting, is the same word as "always" no matter what.
The dream for most is the reality of your "everlasting" in that space next to you when you walk, sit and talk at parties. When surrounded by loved ones your "everlasting" is not just in the back of your mind, but by your side.
If your love ebbs and flows like a river, the degree going up and down, turning left and right when you don't get what you want, when you want it, then "everlasting" has not been found. True "everlasting" is an anchor "always" holding our boats in place when the waves come and wind's blow.
Dear Reader, ask yourself "is this love" before you claim the word as your own, or an illusion of perfection with expectations to topple and dethrone? Is it flash in the pan desire lingering for only a while, once satisfied it will leave your heart for the latest and greatest next style?
Time, friendship and yes, a good bit of desire, are the best fuels to light "everlastings" forever fire. Oh to be blessed....to breathe out the word "everlasting" with someone in mind. Knowing there is someone breathing in the same air with you in mind.
I wonder why so many things are written about love, maybe we should focus more on rainbows, sunsets and moonlight sent from above. BUT, when you add love to those gifts in the sky, oh my goodness on the wings of passion do our minds fly.
Fast cars and freedom are words found in many types of playlist songs. Without melodies of love, long drives always become boring and long.
Hold my hand.
I wonder if true love, real love is found in the softness of a deep friendship? A growing kind of thing watered by morning coffee and late night conservation's courtship.
Maybe that's why so many sonnets of old include the softness of nature in their prose. Bringing to mind the soft petals of a flower, or reflecting on love made while listening to a soft rain shower.
The softness of a true love's touch, when your not feeling well or down on your luck. Deep love, soft in it's brushing touch across your back, reminding it's intended, I am here, my attention you will never lack.
If love is truly soft, the reality of our lovers thorns will hurt us some days. If love is hard and built on illusions of perfection, their thorns will easily turn many away. These Illusions of perfection built only in our minds, will always fold into reality with life's passing time.
Even red flags blow softly in the wind, some too big to overcome for true love to win. But, some when combined with yellow, green and white bring balance to our days and soft love to our nights.
We are all bruised, broken and beautiful needing love's soft petal touch, holding tight to reality so it's easier to endure the thorns on the one we love so much.
Disappointment has killed many real life stories, when it's first chapter could only be found in movies with a happy ending glory.
So what do we do with these perfect illusions we build in our minds? How do we face the reality of our disappointments that will surely come in time? Maybe love grown softly surrounded by grace, is a thousand times better than fast love easily discarded by a single red flag ending the race.
Words when joined together with notes are a powerful force. They give admiration, love, anger, jealousy, suspicion and negative words a voice. Words hold power that can be used for the good or the bad, sadly the bad are not easily forgotten like a crazy fashion fad.
What do the songs we choose say about our mind, our soul and our heart? Music, our chosen music, is the beat of our soul driving blood through our veins, giving our mind a backdrop for the story our heart is writing. We pick music to soothe our hearts, help us drive angrily down the road, boost our egos, give us strength when needed with color and images only it can bring.
To honor music and the God who gave us the ability to write and play it, enjoy it, hear it, and love it, we must be careful with it’s gift. Our hope for the writer, play list master and designer, is they are careful about the words they choose. The good ones, the magical ones, the ones we sing to our self at night, are the ones that last forever.
If cruel, sad, judgemental or accusing songs are played or chosen all the time, sadly they override the soft, kind, upbeat, loving, heartfelt and dancing ones we play at night in our minds. Those lyrics.....those words, sometimes...well they cut like a knife.
When you think about the ones sung over and over again for years, do they bring hope, or do they bring tears? Of course some bring sadness because that is real life, but which ones do we choose so we can smile for a moment in the middle of our strife?
Forgiveness coupled with longing and heartache, well, there was enough for everyone to share, holding the line when love isn't on time and you deeply care. It's funny how smiles are all around, wounds healing slowly would be "almost" invisible and no longer found.
I cannot be sure, but it seems to me that there are some things in life too difficult to be. Unexpected first glances that came as a surprise, hindered by commitments, circumstances and prying eyes.
Intoxicating attraction in so many ways, with flaws in both, never to see the light of day. Imaginary perfection that could easily destroy any new friendship between a girl and a boy.
Just like letters exchanged in the past, their minds fill with expectations that could never last. But oh, the wonder and passion it brings to the mind free to wonder and believe in the dream of always.
What happens when it is not what intoxication imagined them to be? When their true self, both good and bad become reality. Do they turn away disappointed again, or do they choose to get to know their new friend?
Distance and loved ones that make up their lives, may be the reason their glance never survives. But honestly reader, in truth does it matter?........ The heart knows what it knows, so always it fights to keep from being shattered.
Maybe it is fate that won’t let this be, or is it God’s protection from what they can't see? Maybe He sees beyond their circumstance and knows the world would never allow them to dance.
This we may never know, no one's heart can see which way this will go. We can only hope that at night when they close their eyes, they always lift each other up to the God who loves them throughout that night.
You never know where a first kiss will lead, a short term dance, forever there romance or ending that made your heart bleed. If the kiss is blessed and it leads to something more, your heart beating together next to theirs, like never before.
So the dance of hearts begins but what if you both have different ideas of where "potential" or "maybe" could lead? What if you knew finish lines would never line up together unless someone chose to concede. Is that fair? Is it wrong? I don't know....there isn't a song for that.
It takes time to understand and trust a soul other than your own, but "if" you do is it true a ring you will never "own"? For some, a ring represents the "everlasting" anchor for the world to see. While others will never need a band to believe their love will always be.
Neither way of two hearts spending the rest of their lives together is wrong, just like music we all have different view of what's the best song. For some they couldn't chance their forever on a less secure kind of thing. Some are not strong enough to carry that weight in their soul.
But then, something comes along that feels like always, so you decide to find out.
God always had a reason for whatever words He sent her way, thinking of the prayer she wrote in a cabin not far away. Now it seemed her prayers were only needed for a season, a beautiful prayer walk in fall leaves ending in warm summer breezes.
She wondered when it would be time to put her once in a lifetime words away, written in ink not to be forgotten in a few days. This was not an ordinary everyday event, the vast ocean couldn't stop the words and music she believed were heaven sent.
Surprised to see a blood moon where it wasn't meant to be, she didn't have to wonder any longer, she believed. All those days she spent with her words in the middle uncertain, her instincts were right, the wizard really was behind the curtain.
Relieved, happy and sad for her friends all at the same time, looking at carefully placed photographs of their long time love defining reality's do not cross double lines. Amen