When you think Hope is lost
And giving up Is all you got,
Blue turns black,
Your confidence is cracked,
There seems no turning back from here

Sometimes there isn’t an obvious explanation
While the holiest stars can feel the strongest palpitations

That’s when you can build a bridge of light,
That’s what turns the wrongs all right
That’s when you can’t give up the fight
That’s when love turns nighttime into day,
That’s when loneliness goes away,
That’s why you gotta be strong tonight,
Only love can build us a bridge of light

When your feet are made of stone
You’re convinced that you’re all alone
Look at the stars instead of the dark
You’ll find your heart shines like the sun

Let’s not let our anger get us lost
And the need to be right comes at way too high a cost

That’s when love can build a bridge of light
That’s what turns the wrongs all right
That’s when you know it’s worth the fight
That’s when love turns nighttime into day
That’s when loneliness goes away,
That’s why you gotta be strong tonight
’cause only love can build us a bridge of light

Deep breath, take it on the chin
But don’t forget to let love back in

That’s when love can build a bridge of light
That’s what turns the wrongs all right
That’s when you can’t give up the fight
That’s when love turns nighttime into day,
That’s when loneliness goes away
That’s why you gotta be strong tonight
’cause only love can build us a bridge of light
Only love can build us a bridge of light…

So I went to the Maumee Indoor Theater today with my three kiddos… saw Happy Feet 2, loved it, not cinemtic masterpiece or anything, but had some nice moments throughout… great humor here and there, some, well, much of which the adults got and the kids wondered over… probably better that way in some cases, however… one of the great moments in the movie is this piece… sung by Pink, an amazingly talented and beautifully voiced woman I absolutely love listening to…  and the music, the words simply work… they cover a tremendous range of situations we have all been in at some point in our lives…

I have knkown and lived those times when I have felt as though my feet were made of stone…  maybe you have lived those times when it felt like giving up or giving in were the only ways to go… I have personally felt the edge of the cliff to falling into anger, rage, vengence for wrongs… and have only been saved by love… by friendship… by the hope, support, kindness… love I never expected saved me in every way I could have imagined…

I wonder, often, are there really people out there who have never had those moments… who have never needed saving, never needed to see light, never needed a reason to hope… I have felt sorry and sad for those who, believing they found the “answer” they needed only found a superficial nothingness… something that now, in retrospect, is lower than they knew they were… what pain, suffering, heart wrenching reality it must be to realize how low, how sick things really got to be… sadly the consequences are lifelong sometimes… emotional and physical…

The reality is this, we have to take the bad on the chin, I don’t mean embrace that which we abhore to make it through, but we fight, we climb out, we take the next step, we refuse to let darkness take us to a place we never want to go, or for some of us, we will never go back to again… we embrace the light in our lives, the person who has embraced our heart, taught it to love, maybe for the first time, and allow our own hearts to remain open, to embrace the light of love, and banish all doubt away…

When the simplest days fatigue our souls, our hearts, our minds…. every bit of us to the core of who we are… we need to call, to reach out toward our light and know that it will never leave us, no matter what, forever…

I hope we are all lucky enough to build that bridge in our life… be strong, no matter what….

http://youtu.be/aO4q4UghlKo

(Chorus)
Cause people search their whole lives just looking for love like this
I found what forever felt like the moment that we kissed
We’ve both been down this road, but we never had made it this far
Till you took off your wings and you wrapped ‘em around my heart
You make me the person I need to be – that sure sounds like an angel to me
I was on a dead end street on a road to nowhere fast
That’s when you came along baby, you put it all in my past
I was in the dark so long that I couldn’t even see
Without you here with me there’s no telling just where I’d be
(Chorus)
Cause people search their whole lives just looking for love like this
I found what forever felt like the moment that we kissed
We’ve both been down this road, but we never had made it this far
Till you took off your wings and you wrapped ‘em around my heart
You make me the person I need to be – that sure sounds like an angel to me
(Repeat Chorus)
Like an angel to me

Found this song searching for some new country… never have heard it before and there it is, a reminder of where I’ve been… in part anyway… how far the last few years have traveled in my heart, how many bumps and bruises I have endured … the falls I’ve taken that made me feel like I would never get up again… answering the question for me, how far do I have to fall to save my soul… to recover the heart I used to have… and I have, and I am climbing up, I’m out of the hole I used to be in for so long…

I was stuck in dead end choices, dead end relationships, I made choices simply to have something to do, not because I benefited in any way… not for any good reason… so many of us have been there, make choices, or simply go along with things simply because we have the idiotic idea that we can’t say no, the frustrating, heart-wrenching feeling we can’t be saved from the choices we have made, from the mistakes we’ve made… and in some ways , sadly, we can’t… we all wish the past really could be the past but it isn’t ever completely… if it were then we risk forgetting the horrible mistakes, the choices, the consequences we now face/carry for the rest of our lives… how do we ever forgive ourselves for allowing ourselves to be used, for treating ourselves as though we really were worthless, for allowing people to use us so we could feel something, if it was only feeling like trash… convincing ourselves the momentary rush meant more than we knew it did…

If you, if we, are lucky, we find a second chance… many people never do… I found an angel… actually, no *smiles*, she found me… that’s a whole different story I won’t share with anyone but her… it’s the story of us only we can ever know and share, just ours… but I can say this part… I knew… we knew… and it scared us as much as it made us walk on Cloud 9… it was one touch, holding hands across a coffee shop table, that first kiss, embrace… seeing those eyes in person the first time… and yeah, in the most overly romantic way I looked for the angel wings… she was, she is, everything I could have dreamt of… she is my dream come true… and more… my angel, my all, my other-self…
I hope you enjoy the song, enjoy the sentiment, maybe even the hope it may offer if you haven’t found romance, passion, an angel, a best friend, someone who makes your life complete simply by being themselves… I speak from experience now… at the lowest point, at the moment you least expect, when you feel as though every reserve has been spent, as though every second chance is something of the past… well, risk it all, face the paralytic fear of really opening the wounds and hurts that are so fresh… be real, be you, show yourself without the mask, without the filters… be you and only you… and there is the chance, not the promise, no, but the chance you can be smart enough to not just take anything/anyone, be strong enough to know you are worth being treated as the most important person in ONE person’s life, heart, mind…

You may find an angel… they won’t be perfect, they won’t be without fault, but they will be perfect for you… your angel, your all, your other-self…

If I could find the years that went away
Destroying all the cruelty of fate
I must believe that love could find a way
Tonight

Lonely finds me
One day you will come
But I’ll wait for love’s sake
One day to me, love

If I could see beyond the here and now
If you could hear me calling you somehow
If I could know that love is reaching out
To find you with me tonight

Then hope could make these promises come true
Beyond what I could say, what love can do
With every moment leading me to you tonight

Lonely finds me
One day you will come
But I’ll wait for love’s sake
One day to me, love

I will stay forever here to wait for your love

If I could change the currents of our lives
To make the river flow where it’s run dry
To be a prodigal of father time
Then I would see you tonight

Lonely finds me
One day you will come
But I’ll wait for love’s sake
One day to me, love

Lonely finds me
One day you will come
But I’ll wait for love’s sake
One day to me, love
One day to me, love
One day to me, love

I will stay forever here to wait for your love

… hard day today and this song played a few times… it’s a terrible feeling when the reality of being apart from one you love, rather, the one you love implicitly, completely… your best friend… when that reality pours over you again and again like cruel crashing waves of ice cold pain to the depths of your soul…reminds me of how freezing cold water is described when it touches the skin… thousands of needles, your breath catches in your throat… a tightness holds you against your will… you can’t open your eyes against the white light of hurt in your heart…

… in the midst, isn’t it amazing to know and feel the will to wait… the strength to survive in spite of the challenges, the obstacles, the sheer magnitude of everything you have already overcome and what may be just beyond the horizon of our lives… the ever present ability many of us lack gives hope to those who can say in spite of it all, in absolute refusal to back down to life’s twists and turns… I will wait for the future I have chosen, I chose love, I chose her friendship, her embrace, her smile… I chose to be strong enough to stand as the mountain stands to the wind…

I wait for the sake of hope, love, friendship, passion… the smile that melts my heart, eyes that capture my smile, and hands that fit my own… beyond compare, beyond my dreams, beyond what I ever believed possible outside of the realm of here-say and hollywood dreams… I choose this forever road, every drop of rain, twist, turn, bump… and every other portion, simply for the chance at living and making our history together for the rest of our lives…

I would wait forever, as the song says, for your love and the chance to live ours …

Chorus 1
If fall is the soul of the engine
And wine is the drink of the Gods
Forgiveness the road to redemption
Faith can still beat the odds
We’re meant to be baby hold onto me
You’ll never not be my girl
Cause love is the heart of the world

I leave him sleepin as I rise early
Always up before the dawn
The house is dark, but I see clearly
Kettle sings a morning song
The bacons frying, babies crying
I soak up the sights and sounds
Minutes turn to days and I wish that I could slow it down

Chorus 2
If grease is the soul of the kitchen
And coffee the drink of the Gods
Routine to perfect to mention
Time is a thief I would rob
We’re meant to be baby hold onto me
I’ll never not be your girl
Cause love is the heart of the world

Ohh, and hope is soul of the dreamer
And heaven is the home of my God
It only takes one true believer
To believe you can still beat the odds

We’re meant to be baby hold onto me
You’ll never not be my girl(I’ll never not be your girl)
Cause love is the heart, love is the heart,
Love is the heart of the world

I do love the new Lady A album… this song hits home for me in many ways, hits deep in my heart, because there is safety in some routine as much as I cherish the new and interesting experiences in life, there is a comfort in waking with my love by my side, with the routine of making coffee, cooking breakfast, taking out trash, doing those things that we all have to do sometimes and holding close the way we work together to get it done… whether it’s two or five munchkins running around, we work together, make it happen, love each other all through it, share the smiles, touches, kisses, laughter of living our life and love together… and in the routine there is some comfort, there is a safety, there is a reassurance that I will be yours, that you will be mine…

For me, laughter is the sound of happiness, smiles are the light in the day, her kiss is the air I can’t breath without, her touch is the strength I require…

Love is the heart of the world, the one we all wish we could live in, and I’m lucky enough to be able to say I have a woman who is part of my life, who has let me become part of her life, and she shows me every day, in spite of my faults, her faults, our mistakes, what we have is beyond all of that silliness, we have what dreams are made of… we have a happy ever after, no matter what, a chance to live on our cloud… because we took a chance and found our happy ever after…

‘Cause your kind of love’s the best ever made
Makes me wanna come
home at the end of the day
And fall into your arms where I’m safe from harm

Yeah, you’re warm like the sun
New like a dream, you’re heart and soul
You’re showing me things that I’ve never seen
And I can’t get enough of your kind of love

You know there was a time not that long ago
Oh, they called me a cowboy no one could rope
Baby, look at me, give me another kiss
If I’d kept on moving, look what I’d have missed

Yeah, your kind of love’s the best ever made
Makes me wanna come home at the end of the day
And fall into your arms where I’m safe from harm

Well, you’re warm like the sun
To me like a dream, you’re heart and soul
You’re showing me things that I’ve never seen
Oh, I can’t get enough of your kind of love

Oh, your kind of love’s the best ever made
Makes me wanna come home
Fall into your arms where I’m safe from harm

Yeah, you’re warm like the sun
To me like a dream, you’re heart and soul
You’re showing me things that I’ve never seen
And I can’t get enough of your kind of love

I really need to get this CD… yeah I know it’s available by mp3 and all that, but I like having CD’s… and yes I do upload all of them to my comp, or iPod or both… but I want the CD…

So, anyway… did you read the lyrics? really? beautiful and moving words… very true in my life… she takes my breath away… she has shown me things, given me things I only dreamt were possible, read in a book, heard in some story told one time… never believed I would have in my life…

I love a piece reminding me I have found safety in her arms, peace in her touch, passion in her kiss, love and compassion in her eyes… it is amazing to be able to say she is mine as I say I am wholly hers…I get the chance to live a dream… to share life with a woman I adore…

Liz, it’s your kind of love I need, your kind of love I have dreamt , and our kind of life I want as long as I live… you are who I want to come home to, every day, no matter what xo

http://youtu.be/O9BR7QpfH8Q

You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

God is great but sometimes life aint good
And when I pray
It doesn’t always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

This worlds gone crazy
And it’s hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway

You can love someone with all YOUR heart
For all the right reasons
And in a moment they can choose to walk away
love em anyway

God is great but sometimes life aint good
And when I pray
It doesn’t always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
Yeah I do it anyway, yeah,

You can pour your soul out singin’
A song you believe in
That tomorrow they’ll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway
Yeah sing it anyway, yeah, yeah

I sing
I dream
I love anyway, yeah.

It’s really hard to take the high road… it’s hard to make the choice, when you KNOW that what you have thought about doing, or what you have done once and are being asked to consider doing again is wrong to you, to your heart, to everything… and be strong enough to say “no” to be who you really are… if we choose to ignore the chance to say no when we know we should… we pay, with our morality, with our ability to not feel ruined and used, with our ability to look in the mirror and not feel ashamed… I haven’t made all the right choices… none of us have, hell, mistakes are how we learn, and yet… if we make a mistake, recognize it as such, and then keep on doing it, it isn’t a mistake anymore, it’s a choice to do what we know we should never do or have done…

We can make the choices in life to resist the temptation to become someone else’s view of ourselves… we can be strong enough to say “no” i am not that person, i am not you, i am not willing to sacrifice who I am, what i believe is right simply to be accepted, to be part of a group or to have “friends.”  If that’s what a person or group of people want from you, they aren’t, and never will be anyone worth keeping in your life for any reason.

Can you imagine what our lives would be like if we simply stopped believing and hoping things will get better simply because we have challenges to face… because this person didn’t have to go through what I did so poor me… how pathetic is that one?  Make no mistake, I have been there, bitter and angry that people I know “deserve” to have their very lives, the facade of “nice” and “socially acceptable” they display in public stripped away and wish their true life was exposed to everyone…  I can easily wish for the complete and total destruction of people who have regularly lied, and manipulated adults and children to their own ends… and still do, and are still given the benefit of anything beyond a glance to make sure they are as far away as possible…

But, that said, I, we, must remove as best we can the desire to attack those who treat us so poorly… do we give them trust, respect, quarter of any kind in our minds or in life… hell no, for no reason, we would be stupid to do so, but we can choose to continue even in the face of their nauseating existence, to be, yes, better than they are… to be above their way of “living” life …

I struggle with this, a lot… luckily I have the support and understanding of an incredible woman.  In the last 2 years and change, we have helped each other through moments when we had to be reminded to not sink to the level of people who would hurt us, who had, who totally deserved to be completely shredded in every way possible, but we didn’t… we made the choice to not be like them, to not be insincere, to not be duplicitous, to not purport one life and live another… we decided to live our life, our lives, our love, our friendship together, for us, for our life together, for our kids, for our hearts and minds to know we weren’t faking it to make anyone else happy or comfortable…

The chance to live a life of hope, of passion, of friendship, of love… to have a person standing by your side who believes being real is vital to everything… I live a dream each day in so many ways… because of these things, because of her, because we both hoped and trusted after being given every reason to never do those again… we have us, we have this, we have happy ever after…

I sing, I dream, I love, anyway… no matter what…

Seems like there’s always someone who disapproves
They’ll judge it like they know about me and you
And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do
The jury’s out, but my choice is you

So don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
And life makes love look hard
The stakes are high, the water’s rough, but this love is ours

You never know what people have up their sleeves
Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me
Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles
But I don’t care ’cause right now you’re mine

And you’ll say don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
And life makes love look hard
The stakes are high, the water’s rough, but this love is ours

And it’s not theirs to speculate if it’s wrong and
Your hands are tough but they are where mine belong in
I’ll fight their doubt and give you faith with this song for you

‘Cause I love the gap between your teeth
And I love the riddles that you speak
And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored
‘Cause my heart is yours

So don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
And life makes love look hard

And don’t you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
But they can’t take what’s ours, they can’t take what’s ours
The stakes are high, the water’s rough, but this love is ours

A really wonderful new song from Taylor Swift… I heard it this past Saturday for the first time… my fiance’ had all 5 of our kids at a local store, doing a bit of shopping and it sent me back thinking about many things she and I have been through, are going through, and probably will… and yet, as we always have said… we know what is right for us, we didn’t need other people to give us permission to live our lives, to make choices to not settle for what people approved of for their own reasons…

… it is often the case I have found myself holding conversations within the audience of my own thoughts, wishing I wasn’t without the one I need most… we can easily live a life of grey, of day to day with no regard to truly living, making the sacrifices to have the life with passion and joy, a love that sweeps us off of our feet every single day… a best-friend who holds our heart in their hand completely…

There will always be someone who believes they have the right to “speculate if it’s wrong” when they see people together, when they hear of the complicated roads that have led to where people are in life… some things are plain and simple wrong, no excuses or reasons can change that part of reality… but… once the desire to excuse past actions, mistakes, choices is fully gone, we acknowledge it is time to move on, time to keep the past on the edge of our memory… time to live our lives knowing we have made tragic and lifelong mistakes with consequences, and yet, we have found a chance, a second chance to live more fully than we ever dared to dream…

I love the lyric “the jury’s out but my choice is you…”   It is humbling even in the smile it puts on my face and in my heart… I am far from perfect in any regard… I have made mistakes I can’t excuse… I have made choices that caused pain… and yet, I also admit those and others, and hope to live a life without ever making mistakes like that again, strive every day to be able to be called a “good man” and soon a “good husband…”

I live a love, a friendship, a life every day I never believed was possible, and in many ways, I still don’t… It is a challenge for me to accept I could be enough for the jury to be out and yet be so loved, so appreciated… to feel as though I matter so deeply, and without exception… to be the recipient of commitment and honesty, love, trust… how can a flawed man like me ever deserve such a blessing in my life in the precious form of a woman I love… in the eyes of one who makes me see so much with such kindness… in the touch of my best-friend reminding me to not fear, to rest assured in the safety of her love…

It comes back, for me, to this, we can’t worry ourselves because of what people say, might say, do or might do… they don’t have to understand us, they don’t have to approve of us…  they can’t take what we have, “they can’t take what’s ours…”  for me, the light of what we have shines beyond anything I could imagine…  I have seen the light, our love, our passion, our friendship, our commitment, that which so many never find… and it is warm, it is pure, it’s like the clouds have lifted and the darkness has gone away…

We fight through so much in life, people, places, jobs, medical issues… and no matter what, we are hand in hand, we are making the choice to take the risks, embrace what our hearts first raced to tell us, what our minds told us couldn’t possibly be true, what logic argued against, what our past said “if only” to… and now, our hearts race to wake every day reminding our minds, yes, it was true, is true, and more than ever, we have what’s “ours” from now on… no one else will ever take what we have, what we fought side by side to keep and protect, no matter what…

Come what may no matter what happens
No more going
from this one to that one
All the way that’s all that matters.

I don’t
think I can take another here today gone tomorrow lover
Dancing in and out of
my life, not sure I could survive

Oh I’m no quitter, I can’t take handing
over my heart having somebody break it
This is as high as I’m flying.
This is the last love I’m trying.

Sad and lonely I can’t allow to hurt me
No giving into love, having it desert me
This time, all the way
together

I can’t tell you how important this is
Been through to way
too many, hits and misses, almosts, nearly forevers

Oh I don’t think I
can take another here today gone tomorrow lover
Dancing in and out of my
life, not sure I could survive

Oh I’m no quitter, I can’t take, handing
over my heart having someone break it
This is as high as I’m flying.
This is the last love I’m trying.

[Musical Break]

Oh I don’t think I
can take another here today gone tomorrow lover
Dancing in and out of my
life, not sure I could survive

Oh I’m no quitter, I can’t take handing
over my heart having someone break it
This is as high as I’m flying.
This is the last love I’m trying

I don’t think I can take another here today
gone tomorrow lover
This is the last love I’m trying.

I can’t seem to get enough of the Ronnie Dunn CD, his music is very powerful for me, feels very personal in many ways… I didn’t think I’d ever have a second chance… and now I have a chance that feels as though I’ve been given a chance at happy ever after…

I think many of us have been through hits and misses… feeling as though we have tried with all the wrong people, for every wrong reason, for everyone but for ourselves… we make choices thinking someone else’s idea of what will make us “happy” will work and learn the hard way it won’t, it doesn’t, it can’t…

Liz, I’m in this all the way, no matter what happens, through all the twists and turns of our beautiful journey, the hard and easy days, I’m yours, and I want you to be mine…

I Love You!

http://youtu.be/0toaKAW6nGw

Moon so bright, night so fine
Keep your heart here with mine
Life’s a dream we are dreaming

Race the moon, catch the wind
Ride the night to the end
Seize the day, stand up for the light

I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do

Heroes rise, heroes fall
Rise again, win it all
In your heart, can’t you feel the glory?

Through our joy, through our pain
We can move worlds again
Take my hand, dance with me

I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do
I will want nothing else to see me through
If I could spend my lifetime loving you

Though we know we will never come again
When there is love, life begins
Over and over again

Save the night, save the day
Save your love, come what may
Love is worth everything we pay

I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do
I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do
I will want nothing else to see me through
If I can spend my life time loving you

… life can feel like a waking dream, like we have caught the thermal of happiness, we need nothing else to lift us up through the days… our hearts race at the sound of their voice, our pulse quickens when we hold their hand… we can walk next to them and never touch the ground…

of late, my most recent thoughts can be loosely collected in this lyric:

Save the night, save the day
Save your love, come what may
Love is worth everything we pay

I want to spend my lifetime loving you
If that is all in life I ever do

being so far apart, being away forced to keep things to ourselves for so many reasons, and yet knowing, living together in a friendship which cannot compare, a love that fills our hearts even as it simmers while we are apart…

We hope with our deepest fears choking us, making each breath catch… “save the night, the day, your love” no matter what… save it for us, for me… don’t let what we have fade, don’t lose hope in our forever road continuing in the most remarkable way… as it already has…

… the love one finds once in a lifetime, someone who, perhaps because of the simplest things, a phrase, a thought, a chance moment opens a door just enough to brave enough to take a chance once… and we find, where there is a friendship , where there is love, where there is passion, commitment, honesty, everything life has to offer… there we find life , and, yes, love, forever love…

I want nothing else to see me through, if I can spend my lifetime loving my best friend… no matter what baby girl… I promise…

Wearin’ my old sweatshirt and your favorite pair of jeans
Barefoot on the couch curled up next to me
Oh I got everything I’ve ever needed
In you
I’ve found it in you

(Chorus)
Well maybe I’m just lucky
But baby that’s okay
Some people search the whole world over
Just to find a love that’s even half as true
As the love I’ve found in you
ooh ooh

Well I wonder where I’d be if the Lord hadn’t heard my prayer
The one I said every night ’til the day that you got here
You’ve showed me how to live in love forever with you
Oh baby I love you

(Repeat Chorus)

Some things really last forever
Yes some things are meant to be
Like you and me
Oh yeah

Let your love shine on
Shine on and on and on
Oh
Oh yeah

Well maybe we’re just lucky
But baby that’s okay
Some people search the whole world over
Just to find a love that’s even half as true
As this love I’ve found in you
ooh ooh

I found in you
Yeah I found in you

So, went out and bought the new CD and can’t get enough of the songs… had a great time listening to this while I was painting a room with my girl…

It is an incredible feeling to be this lucky, to feel like I’ve found a second chance at something I thought I’d missed out on by being too damn young and too stubborn to admit to myself I knew better…

I find myself grinning… “you’ve shown me how to live in love forever…” and she has… in so many ways, big, small, everything… in the simplest ways … the sweetness of a smile in the dim morning light… the sound of a sigh wrapped in my arms…even putting ice in a glass of water because she knows I prefer it that way… she shows me every day… lives it with me, even when we can’t be together…

I know I’m lucky, but I also know it is far more… one cannot find a match such as this, share the view of a future filled with far more than dreams ever hoped were possible… some people settle with what they think is all life can be, others fill the emptiness they fill with any number of pitiful decisions…

As I look ahead, considering everything that might be, all the choices I’ve made people have said were risky, or weren’t ok, all the choices I felt with every part of who I am were the exact choices I needed to make to have a chance at truly living… and now, there is no question… there is no other direction I would want to turn…

The pieces of me I thought were shattered, gone, destroyed beyond recognition… weren’t… and so far… there are very few pieces left to fall in place… and as hard, achingly difficult, painful, more challenging than any other experience in my life… I have no doubt it has been worth the wait, worth the challenge, worth the tears, worth the smiles, the moments of quiet in the storms we have weathered together in which we were both reminded in no uncertain terms we were so completely and totally “right” about everything… we knew, and we fought, side by side, no matter what … unstoppable…

My love, my all… every single day I am reminded, I’ve found the love of my life in my best friend…