Pretend you can see the ocean because the wind is blowing I can smell it

From one of my favorite Mary Chapin Carpenter songs.

If you ever need some proof that time can heal your wounds, 
Just step inside my heart and walk around these rooms, where the shadows used to be,
You can feel as well as see how peace can hover

Time's been here to fix what's broken with its power 
And the love that smashed us both to bits spent its last few hours calling out your name,
And I thought, this is the kind of pain from which we don't recover

But I'm standing here now with my heart held out to you
You would have thought a miracle was all that got us through
Well baby, all I know, all I know is I'm still standing

***

Sometimes that's the best thing dear friends can do for you, tell you their story so you can see that they've been somewhere bad too, but they're not there anymore, not at all. Sometimes we need friends to be our proof that people do get better, they leave bad things behind and become who they want to be and make their lives what they want them to be. It makes it easier to hope the same for ourselves. One reason why we tell our stories.

I have a couple friends who have told me those kinds of stories when I needed them, and if they're reading this, you know who you are, you're irreplaceable in my life and I love you MUCH.

I'll say it, too, in case you need to hear it: I was so unhappy I couldn't imagine life being okay again, but it is, and I am. More than okay. We leave bad things far behind us, we get better, we change.

yours,
cuileann