Under a Gilded Moon

by Joy Jordan-Lake

Maybe, she thought, grown-up life was not so much finding your perfect place in the world, but aching for all the faraway places and people you loved—and learning to look at right where you are now, as Rema would say, through a long eyepiece of grateful.

“Don’t go thinking you’re the first person to have to swallow her nevers and near choke.

There’s days for wings like eagles, but most of life’s just the walking and trying not to faint facedown in the mud.”