Today we say goodbye to our beloved Christine, age 27. No matter how many times she was told not to go hiking alone, she did it anyway. Raised as a suburban girl, Christine had no real survival skills, so when given the choice to turn back around when she came upon thick vegetation she could not see through, she chose to go through anyway. She met her demise in a snake she was sure would not bite her.

It was beginning to feel like I had no stories left to tell.
I felt drained like all I had left was nostalgia and ennui.

I love the power of having a story to tell.
The ability to capture an audience.
To change their day, week, perspective.
To bring the audience through a range of emotions.
To see the tears building up with sadness to flowing out as happiness, as relief.

I miss that
Of standing on the stage in front of a group of
intimate strangers

Our hearts as one are so bright
I have forgotten what the dark is.
I've found sanity in our eternity
and solace within the depths of our minds.
In our infinity
I feel alive
for the
first time
The adventure pumping through my deep
blue veins.
It lifts me out of this world
And I confess
I love you more with
each
passing
day.

Why do I love you?
My mind jumps in a million directions
Because my mind
is full of you.

Because nothing makes sense without you
You make me see the sun
where I once
saw only clouds.

You've changed the way my heart beats
I now dance in the rhythm of you
How I long to continue to dance with you
on every corner of this earth.

I want to give you everything I have, and
you've already given me the best gift--
Permission to feel safe in my own skin.
To feel enough. To be loved

The office is filled with life
the rooms boast stories of triumph over addiction.
But they don’t know that I am holding a man, dying behind my closed door
with the death rattle growing louder with each passing second.

A night like any other
clients in and out, in and out
July twenty eighth forever scarred into my memory.
They don’t know I am desperately trying to choke my feelings
to save a man from a fate of his own hand.

But i got to walk out and head directly into love’s embrace
Subdued by the entanglement of the clean white comforter and her body wrapped tightly in mine
She saved my life, as I saved his.