In 1939 The Ink Spots Sang These Classic Lyrics: “My Prayer Is To Linger With You, At The End Of The Day, In A Dream That’s Divine. My Prayer Is A Rapture In Blue, With The World Far Away, And Your Lips Close To Mine…”

Most people — including myself — first heard The Platters’ cover of ”My Prayer,” but when this song was originally recorded by The Ink Spots, America was much more idealistic about the concept of love and romantic destiny… F. Scott Fitzgerald, for one, was still alive, and he more than anyone else successfully converted “The Jazz Age” into “The Age of Romance.” These are the kind of songs my mother exposed me to when I was growing up, so I hold her solely responsible for turning me into the hopeless romantic I eventually became… Case in point: I982 — I’m 12 years old, in 7th grade, and completely in love…for the fourth time. And as ridiculous as it may sound for a kid in junior high, my girlfriend and I are going through a “temporary separation” due to “irreconcilable differences…”

Now, if Family Law Attorney Joni Salomon had attended middle school with me, and seen me sitting alone in the cafeteria with an empty lunch tray in front of me — excluding, of course, the quarantined clump of green string beans still on my plate — she would immediately have detected my air of despondency… Young Joni Salomon would have sat down in front of me, watching me pathetically sip my chocolate milk through the chewed tip of my straw, and given me a reality check on love. Knowing Joni now, as a highly successful Family Law Attorney with an office in Beverly Hills, I know precisely the first thing she would say to me in that scenario: “Anthony,” she would begin, “ You have to accept that your girlfriend doesn’t want to ‘go’ with you anymore. So, stop shoving love letters in her locker, following her around during recess and dedicating love songs to her on the radio. It’s over. But don’t give up hope, just move on…to 8th grade.” I joke, but love is really nothing to play around with. It is an energy unlike any other on our Planet… Love can inspire us, and motivate us to accomplish feats we never dreamed we could do…

Love gives us strength and courage. It can redeem us through forgiveness, and empower us… And once love is “installed”, so to speak, in your chest, it can be summoned at will, with zero effort. A mere thought can unleash a tidal wave of emotions fuelled by pure love. With a force this strong, an energy so powerful, destroying it — as in the dissolution of a marriage — should be the equivalent of splitting an atom, or the explosion of a Supernova… Completely cataclysmic… And any person willing to stand in the middle of the obvious ensuing carnage from such a detonation would have to be an extremely courageous, fearless individual… For this role, Atty. Joni Salomon has been “cast.” There is no second choice… For my follow-up article on Joni (her original story ran in HW August 2007), we met in Joni’s conference room, where her smile was still as bright as the light pouring in through the enormous windows around us. But don’t be fooled by Joni’s genuinely sweet demeanor, and tall, slender physique — Joni is a warrior. A heroine in the true Homeric sense of the word… When it comes to protecting her clients and looking out for their best interest, Joni’s dedication goes beyond the realm of a professional commitment — it’s an unbreakable personal promise she makes to every person she represents…

On my latest interview with Joni I got a better sense of who her clients actually are, and the situations and challenges they find themselves in… The one common denominator that almost all of the potential clients share who walk through Joni’s door is “fear of the unknown.” What exactly is going to happen? Will they lose their children? Are they an unfit mother or father? What happens if their spouse wants to leave the country — can they take the kids? Will they have to quit their job to get a better one? And what happens if their spouse starts lying about them, spreading rumors about drug use or infidelity to gain sole custody of their children? Will they lose their house to foreclosure if the bills get too high on one income? A lot of questions, and a lot of anxiety, so, the first ten to fifteen minutes of Joni’s initial consultation is spent calming down these individuals, and letting them know that one thing they can count on is her… The one constant in this new chapter of their lives will be Joni’s commitment to their case…

The faces in Joni’s conference room are different, but the pain is always the same… Sometimes it’s a wife who has never worked a day in her life because her husband always supported the family, and now, in her early forties, her husband has decided to leave her and their children, saying, “Just get a job and fend for yourself!” This is where Joni spreads her protective wings and proves that, though most of us sometimes forget this, the law is really here to protect us… It’s Joni’s job to show the court whatever unique variables require fair rulings to protect you and your children… You’ll never be left out in the cold, but fear of that worst possible scenario happening is what keeps many people in abusive marriages…

Yes, a stellar explosion best describes the destruction of love, but this also apples to the destruction of love for ourselves, because only those who no longer love themselves would stay in a marriage where they are clearly being victimized, either emotionally, physically, or both.. If Joni has a mantra, it would be to always love yourself, and empower yourself enough to never allow someone to mistreat you — or those you love, like your children… Fear of the unknown can never outweigh fear of the known, as in a marriage where you or your children are not happy… Step one is coming to this realization, and step two is speaking with a Family Law Attorney, of which Joni Salomon comes highly recommended…

Love can never be as perfect as lyrics in a song, but we still try for it, don’t we? Maybe the only “perfect love” can really be unrequited love, as personified in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” Few people can have a stronger love for another human being than Jay Gatsby’s love for Daisy Buchanan, but even for them, once they connected, tragedy soon followed… There is no such thing as perfect love, but one thing is certain, once you no longer love and respect yourself, your marriage is in danger, because when your spouse stops respecting you, the marriage is over… This was the most important point I realized in my conversation with Joni… And when you’re aware that your marriage is over, never be afraid of doing what you have to do to protect yourself and your children…

Family Law Attorney Joni Salomon is probably the strongest supporter of love I’ve ever met, but with Joni, self-love must always be present in any other form of love. You cannot have one without the other, and so, though full of pain and confusion, the people who decide to meet with Joni for an initial consultation all have one thing in common: they’ve decided to love themselves and get out of a situation where they were not being respected… And they will soon discover — as hundreds of Joni’s former clients have — they will not find a more valiant champion of love…

It’s only fitting that I end this story with lyrics from a song, since we opened with some… From the pen of an immensely talented songwriter, Linda Creed, I leave you with these immortal words: “The greatest love of all is easy to achieve, learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all…”

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