Hello Stranger

by Katherine Center

And then I’d always, always thank her for being my mother, and for being such a source of love and joy that I could still feel it all these years later, so long after she was gone.

I’d thank her, and then—yes—I’d cry … because happiness and sadness are always so tangled up.

I mean, a woman who didn’t believe in help somehow wound up madly in love with a compulsive helper. Isn’t it lucky when we’re drawn to people who can teach us things we need to learn?

We see what we’re looking for.

I’d been trying so hard to be exactly like my mother that I hadn’t left room to explore or to play or to be a little more like me.

Seeing the world differently helps you see things not just that other people can’t—but that you yourself never could if you weren’t so lucky. It lets you make your own rules. Color outside your own lines. Allow yourself another way of seeing.

But I find the antidote to that is just keeping a sense of humor. And staying humble. And laughing a lot. And doubling down on smiling. We’re all just muddling through, after all. We’re all just doing the best we can. We’re all struggling with our struggles. Nobody has the answers. And everybody, deep down, is a little bit lost.

Sometimes we really are the best versions of ourselves. I see that about us. And I’m determined to keep seeing that about us. Because that really might be the truest thing I’ll ever know: The more good things you look for, the more you find.