Altered

I get it. I used to wonder why grown-ups share so many pictures and videos of their little humans too. Here's my best guess. 

Each family's internal world is transformed when a little human arrives. It is disrupted in beautiful, wild, wondrous ways. And every member touched by that arrival will never be the same. They become something new. Something different. Something more. 

Day in and day out, these internal worlds spin around those little beings growing bigger and bigger every day. For the grown-ups in that child's orbit, it's exhausting. Exciting. Everything. 

We capture moments with our eyes and devices that they won't even remember. Yet we cannot forget. We will not forget because it's etched in our hearts, not memories.

Maya Angelou is quoted saying, "People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." It's sentimental. I know. But, these world-changers make us feel like The Sun. 

Somehow, as we orbit around them, simultaneously, they orbit us too. When that system is harmonious, it provokes a weird certainty:

This is love. 

Not the only love. Perhaps, not the greatest love. But, it is an undeniable, powerful, life-altering love.

"Peter Frampton"

I heard the name, and it took me back. It's funny how that still happens.

The Best Thing I Never Had

Thank God I'm finding the good in goodbye. 

This was the capacity of my love for you.

I touched the scars on your body, etched before we ever were, and thanked Whomever could hear my inner thoughts. I fought back tears then touched you once more. With gratitude. With reverence. Your near misses, some decades old, were too close. I laid my lips on your skin as if my kisses were offerings. I felt your wounds - healed and fresh - absorbed your energy, and transformed it all into deeper love. The deepest.