1. "Sometimes faced with a wall in our path we look up, gathering its height. Sometimes we glance left or right, and walk around it instead... When there is difficulty we contemplate the height of the leap. Never the potential narrowness of the obstacle. To either side it might open into a garden."
"I'm stealing that."
"It's yours."
2. She texts to tell me the song she wrote for me is finished. "Can I come over and hear it?"
"This poor heart was scorched earth and his song was my rain...his voice coming through...I was blinded by sorrow and that big sky...but he sang me through every mile...you put me together piece by piece...you should know it was your words that helped me find my own...and if he ever comes to claim what I owe him, well, he'll have to take all of me..."
And I'm sitting on her couch after driving the truck from the pool parking lot where I sat grading essays with both windows open and breathing for me. Our kids are at preschool, and I wasn't expecting to cry like this, to hear this thing she found written in my life before I knew to live it, but there it is.
"So, yeah, I wasn't expecting to cry today."
"Oh, man, I'm sorry."
"Nah, nah. I'm not afraid. I'm not scared of this."
3. Friends, friends...lean in. Lean in. We're going to make it. We can do this.
"I walked the perimeter asking, 'What is needed?' And there were answers."
These are good days and these are good moments to remember when we're not afraid of the crying and the struggle because we're leaning on the everlasting arm. On a day like that when it was so beautiful and carefee I probably shoulda given you a heads up, but oh well. I already knew you could do it. Lean in.
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