Thanking you for being there, in the nick of time

"Look," my brother said.  "Catch her now, with the light."  And my camera wasn't ready and maybe I wasn't either, but I snapped the picture in the nick of time.  The girl is smiling.  Her kite is aloft.

Early this morning I finished writing the first draft of a book and I was happy—writing makes me feel that way.  By noon, however, my mood had turned.  I'd received some news.  I was deeply distressed.  I felt something break within.

I did something I so rarely do; I reached out to my friends.  I said, What can I do?  I said, Can you help me?  And goodness flooded in.  This, then, is the lesson of this day—the thing that I will remember.  Not the heartbreak—not that—but the goodness in its wake.  The kite that still soars.  The girl that still smiles.  The blue sky that filters in after the storm.

I am in your debt.