This Story
I’ve got two kinds of people reading those two words.
One of them gasped in delight, “How could I have forgotten that this perfect vegetable could also be made a soup?!”
The other. Cringed at the thought of drinking a barely palatable green shard, having it coat their tongue even more fully. Before forgetting about the grimace and swallow. Only to be reminded later in the restroom, after a brief moment of panic.
Yep, stay with me. Life is weird like that.
Two responses can be valid. (Well, obviously I mean any response can be valid and that this is a riff on “two things can be true”)
Walter can tell you how he wants to go back to the police station, “the building across from the library” and details how he’d have you sit on the steps outside and wait for him while he goes inside to talk with “them” by himself. He wants to tell them [in no uncertain terms, judging by his firm tone] while you wait on the steps outside, that his dad has no business going in there and complaining about his mom. “Just makes no sense” and then “right?, it just doesn’t”
Your heart can melt at his brave, protective, fierce, tender expression.
And break that your drama affects his sweet universe.
When Walter came home that weekend after the police station visit, he said he was relieved when the police officers said that they couldn’t arrest me and that he was upset that his dad was complaining to them about the clothes he wanted. “He’s always complaining about you”
You swallow your acceptance and thank him and hug him. Offering reassurance that you will take care of yourself and him. You’ve learned to be clear that you are capable in words and tone (in the past, you might have caught a sob arising from the swirl of rage, fear, and anguish that lurks in tender places and done a very muddy job of it)
And I am capable
So maybe that’s not a good example of two responses are valid unless it’s the second part...the part where you’re strong AND your heart feels broken about something or someone in your universe
Kintsugi, loves. Y’all are kintsugi
