Hard Times

I just got off the phone with an old friend. His voice was coming from somewhere I've never been...A despair so deep that it's hard to fathom. He going through hard times.
He had been married for many years but things happened, the relationship went south so they separated. They've both said and done things that would be very hard to take back. I felt so bad for him....for both of them. I wish there were words I could say or somehow put them both in a time machine and send them back to a happier time but send them with the knowledge of the mistakes they made and the wisdom to avoid them the second time around. A time when their children were young and they were happy together....happy to be alive. But there are no words nor time machines and the only thing left is to somehow pick up the pieces and move on.
I somehow can't imagine starting over at my age. I'm set in my ways and I love my home. I love my office, my desk and the chipmunk in the rhodendren that looks in at me some mornings as if I'm in a zoo. I love my wife and the way she fusses over her hair each time we get ready to go to a party. I love sitting down at this old computer each night, listening to my favorite songs and writing a few words from the heart to share with you.
I hope my friend is able to find some peace again and a place that he loves. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Lyrics to Bob Dylan's Song Hard Times
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor.
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears,
Oh, hard times, come again no more.
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my cabin door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay.
There are frail forms fainting at the door.
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my cabin door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

There's pale drooping maiden who toils her life away
With a worn out heart, whose better days are o'er.
Though her voice it would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh, hard times, come again no more.
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my cabin door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my cabin door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.