32 years is nothing to sneeze at!
Today was a HUGE day for so many reasons. I knew when the segment producer told me that my debut episode of The Goods was going to air on October 27th, that it would go well. I knew this because October 27th is the anniversary of two of our favorite people on the entire planet. A couple that has weathered many a storm. A duo who has been to hell in a hand bucket, and back, but lived to tell the tale of how true, deep, meaningful love is a blessed gift to receive on this earth, during this lifetime. They are the best example of how real lasting love takes commitment, sacrifice, trust and forgiveness that I’ve ever known.
Please forgive me for being late with my post, but Yannick and I were breaking bread and raising a glass with our dear sweet friends Rick and Barbara Springfield as they celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary. We dined on her famous tacos in the comfort of their cozy kitchen overflowing with love and joy. In the twenty two years that we have been blessed enough to call these two friends, we have learned so much about love, commitment, letting go and forgiveness. In fact, when Yannick and I were separated they were the two who picked up the phone one Sunday morning to say; “Enough is enough. You love one another. You are each others person, we’re putting your asses on a plane to come stay with us for some time to put yourselves and your marriage right again.” With them there was never any “hmmm” do we fight through the shit and stay married or walk. Never. It’s always been a stay and fight. Weather the storm to get to the other side where the beauty of the clear blue sky exists. Yannick and I strive to have the same commitment to our union as they do theirs. That trip and time with them put us on that track, and we’re eternally grateful to both of them for that. And although Rick is the big rock star, it is truly Barbie who is the rock that keeps all our ships safely anchored to shore. So in honor of the one, the only, the truly magnificent gift to this earth that is Barbara, in the infamous words of her hubby Rick, one of his many songs he wrote for her as a tribute to how she kept him, and their lives grounded in normalcy…
“Ordinary Girl”
I see her there in her plain print dress and her fading youth.
Something about her opens up my soul,
something about her speaks the truth,
when the sky is falling..
She makes the world go away baby and I tell the truth
There’s a plainness and a sameness to her
touch oh yeah and it’s beautiful.
I love an ordinary girl
Oh she’s just an ordinary girl
I say I love you I know it’s just an ordinary sound
We make love in our ordinary house
yeah it’s built on common ground and we know it baby
We go out walking on an Friday night in Ordinary Town
There’s a sameness and a plainness to it all
Oh yeah and it’s beautiful
Another day, another battle
We shake the cage, our sabers rattle
Nothing that matters comes easy
and nothing that comes easy ever really matters
Oh (everything I am) she’s an ordinary girl (anything I plan)
I love her (for everything that I stand).
She’s an ordinary girl (I’m just an ordinary man)
Oh she’s (in everything I do) Just an ordinary girl
(in everything that’s true) I love her (in everything I plan)
She’s an ordinary girl (I’m an ordinary man)
Happy 32nd Anniversary to two of the most wonderful, loving, grounded, giving people I’ve ever had the honor of calling friends.
I love you crazy kids, here’s to many, many more years together.
xoxo Shantilly
