Some posts don’t need to be rewritten. They just need to be shared again. I wrote this last year when I was more or less face-down on the floor trying to pick myself back up. Trying to learn how to love myself again. Trying to figure out who I was and who I was becoming. My time in the wilderness of KCMO and Kansas made me question just about every life choice I’ve ever made. There were moments earlier in my life when I struggled with intrusive thoughts, especially when I was

Asal was 6 months younger than me. She would have turned 51 this year, but instead she will always be 36. Friendships are strange like that. For reasons I never fully understood, she really wanted to be my friend. She saw something in me that she felt she was missing, something she needed in her life. Maybe I gave her a sense of legitimacy. Maybe I made her feel more anchored. I don’t know. I just know that the connection mattered to her, and eventually, it mattered to me too