Dear Stranger,

Hi stranger.

Before I meet you for the first time I would like to tell about about the first time I will see your face.

The first time our eyes meet I will have no idea...

of your impact, so tremendous, on my life. The way you will reignite the distinguished sun that I have residing within the layers of clouds I have accumulated over the years. The blanket that holds my shaking body through the hours of the night.

I will realize my barren heart has more to offer than I know, that flowers sometimes bloom in the coldest of the seasons. That maybe I have enough in my heart to care for another,

and I will.

Far more than I will know, far more than I will want, and furthest most from what I will allow myself to.

And for that, I am most grateful.

I will hold firm the integrity that you are going to stand by your word to keep the gift of my trust safe. You will learn me like no one else will, like no one else does, because I want you to, I really do. You will hear about how I have had some losses, and you will wipe my tears as I talk through muffled breaths about the pain I never want to be put through again. You will hold my hand as I lay in your embrace and you will promise me that things are going to be okay thenceforth, because you are now going to be here... always.

Always here.

That won't stop you.

To you, it will be clear as day that you are the light in the darkness. All the years of having people chip at my wall, and here you are like a gift from the universe. A little: I'm sorry, you never deserved all that. We got the wrong fella, things are going to be okay now.

The reconstruction of my wall will be happening right before my eyes... What an unbelievably beautiful feeling to have the assurance of the one you can always count on to be by your side. Someone who is going to stay.

You will be the last person I will think to let go, for you are the holder of my flashlight - the guidance of my way through the tunnel...

that won't stop you.

Winter will take its leave, introducing the commencement of spring. I will try with every last remaining shred of hope I can muster to grasp on to the promised colors of the new season, telling myself: Things are looking up, they will be okay now. Bring out that smile and welcome all the beauty life has to offer.

I will know this to be true... I will believe this to be the truth because I will be wanting to do better, for you, for me, for everyone else, for us.

but that's not going to stop you.

I will fail to realize that I have missed one of the most important parts of the equation, the most integral, and I will find myself to be wrong...

about everything.

Not a single breath will be wasted,

and you will leave

despite all of it all.

Unlocking the sacred promises, and unsaying the words.

As life has taught me thus far, and as it will repeat itself: This is like it has always been, the way it always is and always will be. This is how things always unfold.

Like they always do. Always,

because that didn't stop you, and neither could I.

And in that moment, I will know that nothing was going to,

because maybe all of that amounted to nothing at all,

and nothing does not possess the power to stop anybody.

As I write this, my dear stranger, I apologize, for I know of all the other ways this can play out. Yet experience has chosen to teach me to recognize the repetitive patterns that life has thrown at me.

But don't say a word, draw the curtains, this time around, I will be stopping myself.

Hear me when I say: I am sorry, I truly am.

Because the genuine happiness behind the smiles in our photographs is no longer enough for me...

and neither could it stop you.