A STORY. 37. READY TO SETTLE

You’re back at the old bookstore, back to the tinkle of the bell as you open the door with its slight creak. It felt very right, the poem from yesterday, Easy in the Morning Light. And you know what you will be turning to today. Ready to Settle. Then tomorrow, most likely it will be, The Warmth Within.

You can still feel the words resonate inside you, from Easy in the Morning Light:

https://elsasemporium.com/easy.html

with you beside me
     I know where I belong
  I'm easy …

          so    so   easy
                         easy

Easy?

It sounds easy.

You’re ready to try Ready to Settle, the second piece that was recommended.

Ready to settle? Would you really be ready to say, from deep down, this is it? From now on, this is it?

You open MOMENTS, find Ready to Settle in the table of contents. You turn to the page.

https://elsasemporium.com/ready-to-settle.html

So much readiness, so much comfortable readiness.

I'm ready
            like flannel bedding
            that keeps me
            warm as toast

         Leave me in this eddy
                in this idle tidal pool
         I need your steady loving
                as time flows by

         And I want you to know
         I am ready
                        steady
            to settle
            not to settle for
            to settle with
                      down
                      into
                        a steady
                              loving
                                    with you

You keep reading. You also keep wondering. You’ve seen a lot of couples, together for a long time. You haven’t seen a lot …

ready
            like flannel bedding
            that keeps me
            warm as toast

You read some more …

I need you to know
         I am ready
            for the steady
                       settled
                            living with you
         I am aching
            for the steady
                       settled
                            living with you

Autumn sunshine
            heats the coolness
Leaves glow
            tinged with brown

as I'm steady …

You remember songs like Some Enchanted Evening and Strangers in the Night - different and yet, at bottom, about the same thing. Love in an instant. Love in a flash. Some enchanted evening, you see THAT SOMEONE across a crowded room. And then, everything is settled forever.

This is about something different. Settling. Being ready to settle.

You sigh more than once. Not deeply. Just a little. You sign and wonder.

You read the poem again.

On the way out, you get your own copy.

What are you ready for?

You give a rather absent-minded nod to the woman at the cash.

To be continued …
A STORY. 38. THE WARMTH WITHIN
https://elsaiselsa.substack.com/p/a-story-38-the-warmth-within

A STORY. ALL THE CHAPTERS ... UP TO NOW
https://elsaiselsa.substack.com/p/a-story-table-of-contents-up-to-now

Posted April 21, 2024