love me tender.

27 Jan 2012 14 Comments

by mary kathryn tyson in life abundant. Tags: five-minute friday

every friday, i link up with other bloggers over at the gypsy mama’s house. here, we write without filter or edit based on her one-word prompt for five-minutes flat.

it is not meant to be just right. the goal is that we would just write.

it is my suggestion that you write before you read so your head and heart aren’t filled with others’ words.

as always, if you don’t have space of your own to fill, you are welcome to spend five minutes in one of the comment spaces below.

today’s prompt: tender

love me tender, love me true, love me like you do

you come in to those deep dark places

and tenderly touch til they hurt with your light

and they are no more

i adore that this is characteristic of you, my father & my husband

my protector and my provider

that you are warrior and rock, strength and shield

both fighter and lover

and that being fully man, you are tender still

thank you for being both health and healer, word and messenger

my hope, my faith, my truth is found in your cleft

and at your feet

and in your heart and in your arms

i look to you, who looks back with tender and

i am found

and i am safe

and i am strong

you who loves tender and true like you do

my heart, my life, my soul is filled to overflowing with gratitude

you can find my former 5mf posts here.

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an aside: as a theatre person in college, i became famous for a role i played my freshman year. in fact, i was so well-known for it that it became my swan song when we reprised it my senior year. (playing the same role twice was perhaps the hardest role i’d ever played.)

graceland is a one-act play about two women who are fighting to be the first in line for the opening of graceland. it is moving, touching and stinking hilarious if you ever get the chance to see it. i played bev, the older, saucier, been-around-the-block character to my childhood friend carey, who played a more naive, used-and-abused trudy. it was our final show together.

in the last scene in the play, i stood alone on a dark stage (in a stocking cap because i had taken off my dolly parton wig) and sang love me tender.

it remains my favorite role, though it’s not the sort of thing i talk about or think of too often.

and my friend roni remembered this today. to be remembered? and known?

thank you for this, roni. love you, old friend.

what i’m not sure she could have known was that my dad was a huge elvis fan and this song was special between us.

y’all have a sweet day.

know that you are fully known and fully loved.

just as you are.

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