6

 Dear You,
I have been whining a lot lately and you have been so patient with big open ears and a bigger open heart.
Even when your eyes get bleary from the effort to keep them open and I keep repeating myself.
And I make a snippy comment, and when I backtrack and apologize, you smile gently at me.

Lately I feel as if I’m losing my gratitude and humility, but on this night of a full moon, I am reclaiming it.
Life is too short, or too long, to lose it.

I fought so hard to be standing where I am, my shadow overlapping yours.
I can’t lose sight of that, even if it’s just in a tiny way.
Tiny moments make up big slices of our lives, yes?

And though my life is still an uphill struggle in a lot of ways,
and when I complain, I make very valid points,
it is not who I want to be, and it is not what makes me.

So here’s an ode to your thumb tracing a pattern of warm on the back of my hand.
An ode to the constant reassurances you give, especially last night’s: "I KNOW you can do it… when you want something, you get it",
and my quiet reply, "Like you" with bright, shining eyes betraying my sarcastic smile.
An ode to the moment you looked at me with those penetrating blue eyes and said,
"You know what I miss the most?… Waking up next to you."

i love you.
amanda