Leaving Laurel Run
Sep 17, 2012
It has been two years since I have written here so here goes. After discovering that much of what I had been taught was questionable...history, religion, social norms just to name a few, my life turned inward in search of who I really am and where things went wrong. Despite my popularity and my self image being somewhat extraordinary I still felt an emptiness. I felt alone. What was I missing, or better yet... who was I missing?
After several years of rearing two sons on my own I decided that it was about time to strike out in search of a companion, but no woman could catch my eye...until my eyes laid upon a Facebook picture of my first love, my high school sweet heart...the one that got away. It took some doing and a month of phone calls, but she eventually came to my home...some 200 miles away from where she was living. After 22 years we were reunited. At first sight she was like the the summary of all sunshine, every rainbow and smile ever to grace humanity! She felt heavenly...a the greatest gift God could have given me at that point in my life. A second chance at regaining first love, possibly the only woman I had ever loved.
That night I sang my version of "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters to her. She cried...seemed touched to the very core of her being. This was what I was waiting for all of this time. The years of emptiness shrouded in drink and dead end nights playing in a band were finally over. Our first weekend together was bliss. At dawn, when the all of the birds are loud and full of life, they sang to me, "She's back"..."Richie, SHE'S BACK!" I could hardly sleep and when I did awake to see her lying next to me it was difficult to believe that she wasn't in my dreams. It was surreal, sublime...BIGGER THAN LIFE! The best I could feel was back and I would go to the ends of my being to ensure that feeling would never stop again. I thought of being without her again caused such emptiness that my heart could not bear my mind's tendency to torture the soft side of my psyche. All of this has led to this day, nearly two years later, and a series of events that challenges my comprehension as to what separates perseverance from and ego trip. More to come later as I update just how and why I came to this place...away from my home and everything that was "me" to be with her.