Bogie and Bacall...

* * * *

Humphrey Bogart speaking of Lauren Bacall:

"She's a real Joe. You'll fall in love with her like everybody else."

* * * *

Lauren Bacall speaking of Humphrey Bogart:

"Was he tough? In a word, no. Bogie was truly a gentle soul."

Whisper...

Just today, in one of my old, worn out notebooks, I found a scrap of a story that I had written long ago. Truthfully, I had forgotten all about it. And though the writing is rough & unfinished, and you can sense a liberal stroke of the melodramatic style my younger self favored, there was something about this short piece that touched my heart. Something that, without my realizing it when I first scribbled it down, would touch my story, my life, all these years later.

I can only desire that someday the same note of hopeful expectancy that weaves throughout this short piece will be rooted truthfully in my own heart. For now, I cling to all that is familiar; I cling to the love I hold in my heart for my family; I cling to the hope that somehow we will make it through another moment....if only for the fact that we are together.

* * * * * *

"I still love him. I always will.
But I know now that I don't
have to be afraid to move on,
for I can never lose what we shared.

I can never forget.

There are still moments when I struggle,
when the world seems to spin around me
and I feel as if I can hardly breathe.

I desperately try to hold on to
everything that is familiar.

And in that moment I am lost all over again.
But I know that if I can hold on just a little bit longer,
I'll be alright...I'll be able to make it through."