Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to you every week by Linda Hill. Check out her blog for the rules and the contribution of other bloggers.

This week’s prompt:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ring.” Use it as a noun, a verb, an adverb, or an adjective…use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Initially, my brain went to first wedding ring. I can’t help but smile. Man it took a lot to get my woodstove hot enough in my old house to melt my first wedding ring. It was the second step in my reclaiming me. The first step was when I dragged the couch he left behind in our home after our divorce. It wasn’t the one we had agreed upon in the splitting of our personal belongings. Just another example how little he valued me. I burned that dang couch in the middle of our driveway along with 30 years of his Guns and Ammo magazines that he dumped in the middle of the living room taking the trunk they were inside. The flames rose high that night as my freedom rang in snaps and cracks into the fall air. I don’t know why I didn’t toss the ring in that night but I didn’t.

I melted the ring after he took the hinges off the door while I was at work. I had to do a mad dash to the lumber yard to get new hinge pins for the door. It was chilly as all get out so I stoked the fire in the stove. I was furious with the man, and that was all it took. I grabbed the ring from the bowl on the window sill and set it on the stove. Then I set about trying to put the pins back in the door alone. I had to put scraps of lumber under the door to hold it up so I could slip the pins in. I tossed some of the scraps in the lumber and that was the push the stove needed to melt that damn ring and the life sentence flat. It was immensely satisfying.

But I thought of another ring of truth. None of us likes to hear the numbers are escalating again with Covid. Nor do we want to hear anymore of the Trump circus. Face it instead of being a poor sport. So I turned to music.

American Scandal came up on YouTube. It’s Ashley McBryde and this song struck another ring of truth. American Scandal lyrics were written by Randal Clay, Terri Jo Box, and Ashley McBryde.

Hold me, baby, hold me like you ain’t mine to hold
Oh, kiss me, baby, kiss me, like you don’t care who knows
Oh, love me baby love me like Kennedy and Monroe

Typically, we remember the awkwardness of our first kiss. If yours was anything like mine, it was horrible and so embarrassing. Then there’s the beginning tentative kiss that happens when you’re just exploring the waters, and you’re not sure whether to simply caress their lips or to dive in with all the pent-up passion that you have because your heart is involved. We’re filled with so many emotions. Unfortunately, the kisses evolve to only greetings over time, maybe a random peck on the lips during the day or goodnights. Kisses with barely a thought become just another one of the motions of many in the day.

Then there’s the time when you realize that you don’t want to be kissed by this person. Not everyone goes through this but the ones who’ve divorced you know what I mean. The revulsion is intense. And you wonder if you’ll ever kiss anyone with passion again.

Life happens, and suddenly we’re faced with the last kiss before you let them go forever.  Those kisses hurt so much. We’re never ready. I miss you, Johnny so much. I wish I had kissed you more often.

We’ve all experienced kisses over the years, but do you remember when the last time someone kissed you like they didn’t care if anyone knows?

I’ve been fortunate because I did find someone I wanted to kiss passionately. My life came around full circle like a ring.

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve said to my husband, that I love how he kisses me. Life’s too short. That’s the unfortunate ring of truth. We shouldn’t let it slip through our fingers…. we need to love and kiss like we don’t care who knows.