You & I, Rewritten

by Chip Pons

“Grief never ends, but it changes. It is a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign or weakness nor a lack of faith, it is the price of love.”

the path leading me to today hasn’t always been easy or linear, but I try to live each day with a humility and appreciation that comes from a firm belief that nothing is guaranteed in this life and in the blink of an eye, everything can, and most undoubtedly will, change.

Reading her words crack open my chest, threatening to open my own wounds that I’ve deluded myself into thinking have been healed for years.

Sure, her inexperience bleeds through the pages she’s sent me, but what she has is a deeply personal story that I believe will have the potential to punch any reader straight in the heart. Everything else is workable.

If I had to live in a single moment for the rest of my life, it would without a doubt be this one.

From day one, he’s faced every concern and insecurity of mine head on, giving it value and then just carrying on. For so long, I’ve learned to mask the complicated parts of who I am.

“The stories we tell, the ones that we are privileged enough to be the keepers of and share with the world, sometimes those stories, and the authors who write them, need protecting.”

“But loving you and knowing you love me back has fundamentally changed me. It’s like being seen for the first time ever. Like I am free of the man I thought I needed to be and I finally get to be who I’ve always wanted to be—happy, spontaneous and so hopelessly in love with the man of my dreams.”