Magic moments

  by Liz Flaherty        

          My thanks to Jenny Crusie for this post. Not that she wrote it or even knows it exists, but it’s because of http://www.reinventingfabulous.com/, where she suggested we “take a moment” that I’m writing about happy pieces of time.

          Like when someone tells your kid she’s just like you and your kid says, “Thank you.”

          Or when no one’s around and your aloof five-year-old grandkid climbs into the chair with you and stays a while.

          Or when in the manuscript from hell, you get a scene that is so perfect it leaves you laughing, crying, or jumping up and down. Or all three.

          We talk about Happily Ever After a lot. Married 44 years and some, I believe in Happily Ever

After. Every time someone talks about a romance novel without one at its end, I cringe. And it’s not because I think life goes on blissfully and without flaws as long as the protagonists live. I don’t expect their lives to be perfect.

          No, what I expect is that they’ll slam doors, they’ll mumble “I hate you” under their breaths, they’ll think all the way to work about how that night when they get home they’re going to ask for a divorce. They’ll sit alone in the dark and cry sometimes and they’ll envy their friends who always get it right and never have any problems. In their futures there will be the thing said or done that is nearly unforgiveable, there will be grief that brings them to their knees and threatens to swallow them whole, there will be bad days. Oh, Lord, yes, lots of bad days.

     

     But at the end of those bad days, someone will always have their back (and probably rub it if they’re feeling particularly tired and vulnerable). They will not be alone in grief. They will be lonely sometimes, but they won’t be alone. Not really. Because someone can finish their sentences and knows how they take their coffee and they probably say “I love you” every day or, at the very least “ditto.”

          And it’s all moments. Even during long, hard days, there are good moments. And during bright, sunshiny ones, there are pinpoints of darkness.

          We went to a wedding this weekend. We were leaving the reception–kind of early—and were halfway to the door of the venue when the DJ started a slow song. Duane turned back and said, “You want to?” and we went back and danced for the first time in years. It was only a moment--or a few of them--but it has made me happy all day.

          Happily Ever After. In moments. I guess that’s why I write romance.

          Tell us about your moments–-good and bad. We’re good listeners.

          Have a great week.