When I walked in she said she had just started dinner from what was left at the bottom of her fridge. I said I hadn’t had time to make anything to bring. My hair was dirty and my shirt stained. It felt so awesome to be able to be so real in front of a friend I had met in person only a few days ago. But the truth is, we have known each other for years online and have seen each other’s bare souls more than once.

When she told me that I had been a mentor to her in the early years of her twins, I had no idea how much that had meant to her. And now, I am there, standing in her kitchen and she is teaching my girl how to make pupusas (that dinner was AMAZING!) and I make green juice with her twins, and we laugh and we go right to the heart of what is alive for us in that very moment of our lives.

When I tell her I mourn the girl that thought that finding one’s place in the world would keep her from the suffering, from the hardships, from the doubts, she said: but, love (I love that she calls me love), life is hard, there will always be struggles. We all struggle. And I know how much she is right. That there is no achieving of dreams that will keep me from the rough patches. That life itself is a wild ride and that I better get my seat belt strapped on because there will be bumps and holes, and baby, I will ride them no matter what!