Swimming toward the light

You know how you have certain knick knacks around the house that remind you of the past? I have a certain framed picture in the laundry room next the the garage that has great significance for me. I reminds me of a time so very far away.

Once upon a time there was a woman who married a man and they did not get along. At all. In fact, things were so bad for the woman that she found herself shaking in fear whenever her husband was due to come home from work. She even forgot how to smile. Her friends and family refused to talk to her until she got out of her marriage because they did not want to hear any more about her suffering.

One day this woman was going for a walk around her neighborhood. She passed a garage sale and saw some framed artwork sitting on the pavement. She saw a certain piece that made her eyes grow wide. Recipe for a Happy Kitchen. This was a piece all about love and loyalty and happiness. It was a strain of music from so very far away, it almost sounded alien to her. Happy Kitchen. Happy home. Hmmm. Is it possible? Is it possible to ever live like that again? Am I worthy of a life like that? She went home and got the $2 they were asking for the picture and put it into her van under the seat. She was not going to soil the picture by taking it into her house. She would hang it in her new apartment as soon as she found a place for herself. It was her secret.

One day when her husband left for work the movers arrived and helped the woman move all her things and her children's things into her new apartment. She hung up the picture. She now lives in a new home with a husband and more children and continues to gaze at the picture from time to time. Yes, many of the statements now apply to her home. While no family dynamic is perfect, her present family is a good place to raise children. And a good place to live.