Living in Limbo

"Do you have something profound to say?" she asked Doug.

He walked over, sat down, leaning forward with his hands dangling between his knees. 

His gaze was sharp on her face. "All my life, as long as I can remember, you've been the ghost

 in the house. Doesn't matter which house, you were always there, just by not being there. 

Every holiday, every event, even ordinary days, the shadow of you darkened the edges. There were times, plenty of times, I hated you for that."

"Pretty inconsiderate of me to get myself snatched that way."

"If it weren't for you, everything would've been normal. My parents would still be together."

"Oh Christ." She said it on a sigh.

"If it weren't for you, everything I did growing up 

wouldn't have had that shadow at the edges. I wouldn't have seen the panic in my mother's

 eyes every time I was five minutes late getting home. I wouldn't have heard her 

crying at night, or wandering around the house like she was looking for 

something that wasn't there."

Birthright 

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By Sheba_Also 43,000 photos - 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shebalso/20984381884/, CC BY-SA 2.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72977824

What it really feels like when a loved one goes missing

The majority of missing people return fairly quickly, but around 1% don’t. Their cases remain open for a year of more – and some for much longer. In the meantime, their friends and relatives must live with the uncertainty and hope of finding what happended to their loved ones, sometimes for many years.

The Conversation

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The fabric of their lives woven over the past twenty-five years had been torn. 

Their routines of home and work and family shattered.

Their world became the hospital, the being there, 

the going to and from, the constant juggling on snatches of 

sleep and rushed meals between. The demands of work, the people 

and animals depending on them, the low simmer of worry for Cora.

If Alice’s return created such tears and breakage, Bodine thought, 

how much had her careless departure caused so long ago?

Come Sundown

It's not all hearts and flowers

"I didn't forget you either."

"Didn't you?"

"Nope." He opened a drawer. "I didn't leave it out because I wasn't sure 
what the maid might make of it."

Lana stared as he pulled out a can of Boston baked beans. 
When he dropped it into her hand, grinned at her, her heart not only tripped, 
it fell with a splat.

"That just tears it. I'm done in by a can of beans." 
She pressed it against her heart and began to weep.

"Oh Jesus, Lana, don't cry. It was a joke."

Birthright 

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Gaelle Marcel gaellemm [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Women reveal the seemingly unromantic gestures that REALLY say 'I love you' - from cleaning up sick to practical presents

DailyMail

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"Then we will go down and face the chicken together."

"Really? You'd do that?"

"I'll also face the crab dip and the pasta salad with you. Such is the depth of my love, even at six o'clock in the morning."

Spock rose, yawned, stretched. 

"And apparently his. If we poison people, Cilla, we'll do it together."

"I feel better. I know when I'm being a maniac."

She walked to him, leaned down and kissed his sleepy mouth. 

"And I know when I'm lucky to have someone who'll stick with me through it, right down to the crab dip."

Tribute

Rekindling

“You brought me flowers again.”

“My daddy brings my mama flowers once or twice a week, 

and I figured out it’s because they make her smile, just like you are now.”

The Witness

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By Pierre Auguste Cot - Art Renewal Center – description, Public Domain, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1597861

Rekindling the Spark in a Long-Term Marriage

People tend to work very hard to get into that “once-in-a-lifetime” relationship. The honeymoon phase of courting and dating requires great effort to let the other know that she is special, that he is “the one.”

Falling in love with your partner for the first time is all-consuming. Maintaining the love and affection once a relationship is well-established also requires effort. 

PSYCH CENTRAL

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He heard the click of heels on wood—quick, brisk, female. And when he turned, nearly bobbled the second cup of coffee.
“Wow,” he managed. “What’s up with you?”
“Oh. Well. Just . . . nothing really.”
She blushed. He didn’t know mothers could blush. And apparently he’d forgotten how beautiful his own mother was.
Her hair was swept around her face, and her lips and cheeks were attractively rosy. But the dress was the killer. Midnight blue and sleek, it was short enough to show off terrific legs, scooped low enough at the bodice to give more than a hint of cleavage, and snug enough in between to show off curves he wasn’t entirely comfortable thinking about his mother having.
“You hang around the house like this very often?”
Her color still high, she tugged self-consciously at the skirt. “I’m going out shortly. Is that coffee for me? Let me get you some cookies.”
She hurried to the counter to pick up a clear glass jar.
“Where are you going?”
“I have a date.”
“A what?”
“A date.” Flustered, she circled cookies on a plate, just as she had when he’d come home from school. “I’m going out to dinner.”
“Oh.” A date? Going out to dinner with some guy? Dressed like . . . barely dressed at all.
She set the plate down, lifted her chin. “With your father.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said I have a dinner date with your father.”
He sat down. “You and Dad are . . .dating ?”
“I didn’t say we were dating, I said we had a date for dinner. Just dinner. Just a casual dinner.”
“There’s nothing casual about that dress.” Shock was slowly making room for amusement, and trailing just behind was a nice warm pleasure. “His eyes are going to pop right out of his head when he gets a load of you.”


Birthright

Unsexy Things You Wear That Actually Turn Men On

She turned. He’d never seen her look less than perfectly groomed, he realized. Even after they made love she somehow managed to look perfect.

Now her hair was standing in tufts, her eyes were damp and a little wild. Her feet were bare, and there was a coffee stain splattered over the front of the WORLD ’S BEST MOM T-shirt she wore.

Embarrassed color flooded her cheeks even as she lifted her hands in a helpless gesture.

He’d been attracted to the stylish, organized attorney. Seduced by the warm, confident woman. Intrigued by the widowed single mother who seemed to effortlessly juggle all the balls in the air.~

And to his utter astonishment, he fell in love with the messy, frustrated, unhappy woman with toys scattered at her feet.

Birthright 

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A dude explains the unexpected items of clothing he loves seeing you in

You probably have a pretty clear idea of what you think is sexy and date-appropriate (lipstick, heels, cute dresses) and what falls on the frumpy side of the spectrum (sweats, turtlenecks, button-downs). But you might be surprised by what turns guys on.

Women's Health

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Her hair was damp. She’d pulled it back from her face in a sleek tail, and he could see it was'n’t quite dry. He could smell the girly shampoo and soap, and the scents wound their way into him until the muscle in his gut tightened in response.

She wore fuzzy purple socks, black flannel pants, and a hot pink sweatshirt that announced: 

T.G.I.F.

THANK GOD I’M FEMALE.

He could add his own thanks.

Blood Brothers

Things happen to couples who have been together a long time

Still looking at him, she held out a hand. Jake put a mug of coffee into it. 

“I heard you were out of town.”

“I got back yesterday. I came by the site, but you were busy.”

“Oh. Well. You put cheese in those eggs?” she asked Jake, and was already opening the

refrigerator to dig some out.

“Not everybody likes cheese in their eggs.”

“Everybody should like cheese in their eggs.” 

She passed him the cheese, skirted around him to open a loaf of bread. 

“Put some in my share, and if it gets in someone else’s that’s too bad.”

Doug watched Jake hold out a hand for the knife she’d taken out of a drawer, watched her

pop bread into the toaster, then take the plate he handed her.

It was like a little dance, he decided, with each knowing the steps and rhythm the other

would take even before they were taken.

Birthright

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"Another sunset together" by Leo Hidalgo from España - Another sunset together. 

Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Science says these 5 things happen to couples who have been together a long time

Being with someone for a long time changes the way you see the world. It also changes you. Everything from how you act to the way you think shifts in ever-so-slight ways.

And according to Joshua Wolf Shenk, the author of "Powers of Two," these tiny shifts are also the catalyst for a different kind of thought process — a shared mind, so to speak — that allows couples (romantic or not) to come up with more creative solutions to problems than they'd ever think up on their own.

YAHOO!

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“I’ve been making this pie for too many years to count. It’s Loren’s favorite.”

“You smile when you say his name.”

“Do I? We’ve been married—I count from the handfasting—for thirty-six years. He still makes me happy.”

That, Abigail thought when she was alone again, was the most vital and compelling statement on a relationship.

The Witness