Deciding what to be, and being it.

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The Best Days

#3 - February 14th, 2009
We're in Jamaica, sitting on the back of a catamaran, drinking rum punch and watchin' de breeze go by.

The boat stops, and we jump off, free spirits floating in the Caribbean Sea. We swim near the cliffs, and embrace in the water. Happy, in love.

It feels like starting over, hammering the final nail into this home we both worked so hard to rebuild. And I know, with no uncertainty, that this is the home in which we can build our life.

#2 - December 24th, 2004
On the same streets I rode my bike on as an innocent 10-year old, with the twinkling lights as our background, he dropped to his knee and asked me to spend forever with him.

Ring on my finger, tears in my eyes, I walk through the door of my childhood home and into the waiting arms of my mother.

I have never seen my mother happier than she was that day.

#1 - December 24th, 2009
Lying on my back, paralyzed from the chest down. I feel nothing. Christmas music plays, doctors idly chat, and I sing along with Hallelujah Chorus in a loopy, medicated state as I am sliced open. He sits at my left shoulder, holding my hand.

The nurse tells me to prepare, but I never could have prepared. Incredible pressure, tugging, pulling, and the sound of her cries filled the room and my ears - sweet, short, perfect little wails that made even the most beautiful symphony sound like mere noise.

Later, I held her as she looked up at me with wide, curious eyes that were much older than just her few hours. I knew, at that moment, that being her mother would make me a better person.

It has.

10:23 a.m. - 2011-08-05

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