Simple and insensitive. All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter. I've always been too quick to, as an eager constructivist would be, to find building material in the words of others. Forgetting that we all create these ideas out of the same dust. I must train myself to recognize that my words and my stories can be as powerful and as valid as the next, balancing with wisdom and grace. First step: It is empowering to be here alone, with all the time in the world, no one to answer to, or to look out for, to nurture a double , balanced respect for myself and for the people around me.

When will I learn that it works both ways?