.JPG)
There is a thing that happens, when you get to know a person. Something I have noticed.
I'm never sure just when it will be, which part of what makes it fun. Maybe I've known you for years or months or minutes, I can't be sure about that part either. But there will come a moment when you will come alive, right before my eyes. And it's certainly not that you weren't before, this is different. Because everyone has something[s] they are passionate about, things they love deeply, that will one day - without warning - overflow from themselves. And whether sooner or later, a moment will come when it will seem you could very nearly burst about that thing, whatever it may be. It's possible it will be a very ordinary seeming moment, to any unsuspecting onlookers. We'll share in knowing it was anything but.
In my experience you may not even realize it's happening at first, you will be so caught up in this thing that you love you will have very little awareness of me. Because this isn't about what I think. This isn't a show or a means to impress anyone, and I know because you speak freely and you may be a little sheepish after, like you've been caught doing something private, something intimate. And it will have been. You will have for just that moment forgotten the expectations you have of yourself, any you think I have of you, and been the most genuine you you could be. It will be irresistible.
It might be about your community or homeless people or Jesus or art or writing or your kid or fishing or cooking or a book you read or music or your family or your best friend in the world and maybe even me. I don't know what it will be and if I'd asked, you may not have either. It will likely be many things as I get to know you. These moments, they will come - each one as captivating as the last. And if I'm lucky, I will be privy to them. I will soak them in.
And you, just for being the you-est you you had it in you to be, will be loved.
I wrote this a long time ago and I couldn't decide if I wanted to post it or not, if people would understand what I was getting at in this sort of ambiguous observation. Then, one of my favorite artists/wordsmiths/story-tellers of all time, Brian Andreas of StoryPeople, who has a penchant for portraying my deepest emotions using a pen and paper and an Instagram account, posted this.
That. Exactly that.
