These days

"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you." - Maori proverb

It was a Monday and it was the kind of weather day that made me R U N from the cold, dark shadows and into the warmth of the sun.

It was a perfectly unplanned day.  Schedules, as if by magic, cleared themselves and we got to spend it with a new friend.  The kind of friend that doesn't live anywhere near us.  The kind of friend that you know you quite possibly won't ever see again, but it's still okay, because the time you get with them is enough. 

The next day was confirmation of the goodness that was in the previous two days. 

Another stranger knocks at the door, and leaves as a friend that we're thankful to know.

What i'll remember about him is staying up until almost 1 a.m., the three of us talking freely about every topic under the sun (literally, from Winnebagos to Adam & Eve), and just appreciating his honesty with us. 

It's worth noting too, that sometimes gratitude becomes deeper and more real when you compare similar situations side by side.  And last year at this time I stayed in bed all day because that was all I could seem to manage, and that dinner with Carl was a miserable blur.  So to have his companion this year accompanied by a peaceful home, and a sound mind is all-together wonderful, and makes for Cloud-9 Days.