I don’t know.  But I do know that the odds of winning increase with talent, preparation, margin, confidence and support. 

As an adult, I take my shoes off after mowing my lawn and shuffle my feet in no particular pattern, working to emblazon that feeling of fresh cut grass between my toes.

But there is this dance, isn’t there.  Open, close, spit, swallow, talk, stop talking.  Knowing when to open my eyes and close them is awkward.  Going to the dentist is far from a massage, yet far from therapy.  It’s awkward.  

I’m grateful to be reunited with friends.  I’m grateful to see Carol and Jim and Ryan.  I’m grateful I’m not the same person I was then.   

Relationships — healthy, life giving relationships — are complex and dynamic and fantastic.  Healthy relationships can weather almost any storm, yet each requires work. A lot of it.

Susan may do a lot of things, but she won't forget.  This space between casseroles and Christmases is where we can do work

See, I’m louder than she is which makes me easier to hear.  But is my voice the one that the world needs to hear?

I’m grateful for men that make me better.  A sword is intended for battle and I’m grateful for the bladesmith that knows when to dip into the fire and when to dip into the water.  I’m grateful for men that understand when to apply the friction of the whetstone and when to sheath the blade.

My boy understands that there’s a natural order to things.  And yet he confuses ‘Adams Apple’ with ‘Johnny Appleseed.’  This is the nature of growing up, I suppose — learning the order of things, clarifying fictions (Johnny Appleseed) and facts (Adams Apple).