The Play’s the Thing
“Lamp Man”
The Bumpy Road to Love (and the Coincidences That Kept Them on It)
Stars Collide
“Coincidence is God’s Way of Remaining Anonymous”
Six Previous Marriages, a Little White Lie, and a Lousy Apartment
A Pair of Panties is the Reason They’re Married Today
Sue & Kenro
After Great Loss Comes Great Love
He Used the Right Word
The Bartender Had His Eyes Open
Let’s Get You Out of Those Wet Clothes
Come Fly with Me
Never Talk to Strangers (or You Might Meet the Love of Your Life)
Snap Decisions
They Met the “Old Fashioned” Way (Through Personal Ads)
I’ll Show You How It’s Done!
Paying for It
Sometimes Ya Gotta Take Risks
“Duh!”
Twelve Steps to Finding Love
The Guru’s Spiritual Advice – “Join a Dating Service!”
She Went to Texas and Came Home with a Russian
The “Chorus Boy” and the “Leading Lady”
“Would It Be So Bad for You to Pursue This?”
“You’re Marrying the Wrong Guy!”
It’s NEVER Too Late for Love
The Sailor of Her Dreams
Her Resistance Was No Match for His Persistence
All It Took Was One Piano Lesson
Overnight Success!
How She Met Her Mother
Ya Gotta Kiss a Lot of Frogs!
The Black Belt and the Garbage Man
The Walls He Had to Break Through Were His Own
Literally a Dream Come True
You Can’t Fight the Truth (or a Tight Pair of Tennis Shorts)
Friends First
You’re Already There, a companion CD to this book with seventeen songs composed and performed by David Friedman can be ordered by writing to the author at [email protected] or downloaded at iTunes.com or amazon.com
Trying to sleep, alone in my bed
Thoughts of the future go ’round in my head
How will I find a love of my own?
A love of the kind that I’ve never known
Don’t know where i’m going
Don’t know what to do
But I take comfort knowing
That right here and now
You’re out in the world
Searching for me too
You’re already there waiting for me
Wondering where in the world I could be
You go through the day dreaming your dream
Afraid that it might not come true
While I’m lying here dreaming of you
You’re far, far away or just down the street
But surely some day we are destined to meet
I know in my heart you’re coming to me
I don’t need to know when and where
I’ll just turn and one day you’ll be there
And maybe we will know
At the first glance, at the first word
Or maybe we’ll go slow
Start out as friends
But in the end
A love to last a lifetime will grow
And that will be our story
I can’t wait to live our story
So now go to sleep, and I’ll do the same
Knowing your heart though I don’t know your name
I trust in a plan much higher than me
To bring us together in time
So ’til you appear, I’ll picture you here
Remove all the doubt and let go of the fear
And know that the future is fine
You’re already there
Waiting for me
So in a funny way
You’re already mine
©David Friedman/Midder Music
A number of years ago, I found myself suddenly and shockingly single after having been in a fifteen-year relationship. Over the next six months, I went through all the normal stages that people tend to go through after this kind of loss; I traveled, told my story to everyone I could think of, renewed old friendships, threw myself into my work, stepped up my therapy, and slowly, with very little success or satisfaction, began to date.
About six weeks after the breakup, I was lying in bed one night feeling sorry for myself, wondering how I would ever have a life, when a very encouraging thought came to me. Being a songwriter, I put that thought into words, and the result was a song, the lyric to which is written above.
As time went by, I began to remember what I had known fifteen years before and forgotten over the years of steady committed relationship—that meeting the right person is something that is, in many ways, very much out of our hands. People had all sorts of advice for me: “Go out and meet everyone you can; Just sit still and it will happen; You’ve got to be aggressive; Don’t be too pushy; When you see a quality you don’t want in someone, stop dating them immediately; Be open; Be cautious; Give it time; Get yourself in good shape; Don’t change a thing; You have to change something inside you to allow yourself to meet the right person,” etc., etc., ad nauseam. But no matter what I did, it seemed to me that it was going to happen when it was going to happen, and the best I could do was be open and take whatever