I watched Nights in Rodanthe again.
I don't know why I do that to myself.
I end up crying every single time.
I know how it ends. I read the book. I've watched the movie. But, the tears come anyway.
Everytime is like the first time.
Why do I watch it? Is it because I can see myself with Richard Gere (sigh)?
Maybe it's Adrienne.
Yes.
I identify with her.
"When Jack left me, it wasn't just our marriage ending. It was the loss of all the hopes that I'd had for the future. I tried to move on, but the world didn't seem interested in me anymore. Then you came along and helped me believe in myself again."
I've been there.
So?
I was Adrienne once. My marriage had fallen apart. I was broken and lost. I didn't know who I was anymore. I had become a nonperson in a bad marriage.
Then,'Paul/Richard Gere' came into my life, and I started to live again. I began to believe in myself.
I learned to love again.
At one point in the movie Adrienne talks to her daughter and tells her how this new love is different from the love she had for the father of her children. "There is a different kind of love. A love that gives you courage to be better than you are, not less than you are. One that makes you feel that anything is possible. I want you to know you could have that. I want you to hold out for it."
At this point I am sobbing, because the love of her life has died.
But! Because of his love she has a new belief in herself that maybe she wouldn't have had, otherwise.
His son visits her and says, "You gave me my father back.You saved him." She answers, "We saved each other."
Certain people come into our lives at strategic times. They encourage us, and believe in us where maybe we've lost all confidence. They help us find ourselves again.
In a letter Paul writes to Adrienne he says,"I've been thinking of you constantly since I left, and wondering why the journey I'm on seemed to have led through you. I know my journey's not over yet, and that life is a winding path, but I can only hope it somehow circles back to the place I belong. That's how I think of it now. I belong to you."
I met my Paul/Richard Gere. He is my husband today. Our lives crossed on our journey through life. We stopped long enough to allow our paths to intersect. Two individual lives on totally separate paths, now sharing the journey.
How awesome is that - to get a second chance in life, at love? My nights are not in Rodanthe, on the shoreline. My nights are on the plains where the sun hits the horizon in wild hues of oranges and pinks. Where wheat glistens like gold, and little calves bawl and wobble beside their mommies.
Lives can change.
Love can happen.
Dreams can come true.
Here's to love that makes you feel anything is possible, and gives you the courage to be better than you are!
Happy Valentine's Day.
