With Love

...detachment...was fairly easy for me. But it was with indifference. Detachment with love was out of the question. ~ Courage to Change, page 100

They talked a while after the others had left.
Her wise old friend listened to a reprise
of endless years of dysfunctional marriage,
of stories of before and after recovery,
of descriptions of the same old attitude
still ruling the roost, but the difference.
Before the best she could have done
was to tolerate, to hold her head high,
to not let him pull her down to the depths,
at least not often, not all the time.
But after recovery he hadn't changed
and she knew he never would,
had come to understand a picture of him
that might or might not be the truth
but that explained the indifference,
the difficulties through the years.
Her friend said she'd never understood
why she hadn't left, found someone else,
looked for happiness rather than settling.
She tried to explain, but her eyes watered,
she found it difficult to hold her face still.
The wise old friend pointed out what kept her there,
what made her content, was that against all odds
she loved him still.