Living in Bed

“We can’t live our entire lives in bed!” was her response to an uncomfortable moment in our relationship. And we both understood that her words were not the literal rendering of her conviction at that moment … so when she amended her comment (a short moment later) with “But it would be worth trying to.” We smiled with our unspoken agreement in those unspecified truths that she was making an effort to articulate. And now, nearly twenty years later, I am still considering the import of what she was, then, trying to express.

“We can’t live our entire lives expressing our unguarded desires and emotions in an environment free of demands, requirements, expectations, or conditions. We can’t know, as our common experience, openness and candor … hilarious gaiety … whilst resting in our trust of all those surrounding us. We must deal with the conflicts and intrusions brought upon us by the roles, positions, and responsibilities imposed upon us by the world outside of ourselves. But it sure would be worth making the effort to make it otherwise!” This is what she was trying to say. What I have been considering all of these years later as I reflect on the lessons presented to me by that circumstance along with the myriad others in my life-curriculum.

What I share with you, My Dear Reader … as you search for a vocabulary to give voice to those impulses and inclinations that are perking within your spirit … is in the hope that I may, in some very small way, enable you to understand, accept, embrace, and ultimately celebrate a healthy realization of your innermost yearnings. That you may enjoy (YES, it is possible!) every element (or, at least, most ) of your life.

As I, simultaneously, hope that She has found the language to communicate Her desires to the one to whom she is married … and that they, together, might be basking in the glories of a life joyfully fulfilled .