The sky was sunny and clear today, and I spent many lovely hours with a person I hadn’t seen in a long time, a person I had rarely spent so much time one-on-one with although they were big in my life, a person who often been difficult for me (to say the least). And the time spent together was truly wonderful, comfortable, easy, deeply enjoyable. On the way home, I cried, not in sadness, but for the ease and joy of the afternoon. And I thought: when you see yourself for who you truly are, for the beauty of who you are, only then do you see others for who they truly are and the beauty in them, too.

I have spent so much time blinded by my own pain and suffering, and I am deeply grateful for moments of awareness like these today.