A Happy Marriage

   There is one thing about being married to the same person for a number of years....you get used to each other.  Not that this is a bad thing...just the opposite.  It is a good thing.  After nigh on forty years, you can say that you truly begin to know the other person. You understand what they mean with just a portion of a sentence, know when is a good time to broach a new idea and feel when to give them their space without intruding.  Mark and I are pushing that forty year mark in our marriage.  We are comfortable with each other and that, my friends, is a basis for longevity in a marriage.   How did we get this far?  We never gave up. We are in this for the long haul.  That said, marriage of items can be the same.  The union can be a comfortable fit. Two thing can "just go together" whether their beginnings were one and the same or not.  When matched up, it seems as if the pair was meant to be and should never be put asunder.

  This afternoon as yet another thunderstorm darkened skies and the Little Bayou House, one such marriage sparkled its happiness throughout the gloom.  What started out life as a kerosene lamp that was given to my folks as a wedding gift is now a permanent fixture in our house.  After my folks got electricity in the house, the lamp was relegated to the attic.  There it sat for some fifty years.  Now, it is in a union with a shade that was from one of the first families to settle Biloxi.  Pop worked for several years as a handyman for the family and they often gave him things to discard.  One such item was a very old, jewel-encrusted, filigree brass lamp shade.  Although she never used the shade, Mom kept it because it was so unusual. It, too, wound up in the attic.  It was my bright idea to introduce the two and what a happy pair they became!  Son wired the glass base with a small electric bulb so it is now functional.  The bejeweled brass shade balances nicely just above the shoulders of a glass hurricane chimney.  Supposedly, there were prisms hanging from the rim of the shade but since those are long gone, a beaded fringe suffices as the finishing touch.  Once I find prisms, the fringe will be removed and the shade shall return to its original beauty.  

  To me, the union of lamp and shade made for a "happy marriage".  The lamp brightens the corner of the buffet nicely on storm-darkened days and doubles as a nightlight when company visits the Little Bayou House.  Two parts that were nothing before the marriage are now a unique lamp.  The pieces are a comfortable fit.  The marriage is a happy one!