This Is Lily Grace (The Antidote).

You met her after 12 days on earth here. This is 5 months later.

For Sharie

Oh blessed modern technology! Oh blessed software! Even a reformatted memory card can be recovered. So it turns out, things are looking up.

Argh

Yesterday was a bad day, the worst in a few months. It started small and then unraveled in the most unexpected and disappointing of ways. In the midst of it, I realized that I had inadvertently deleted 400 pictures of the most precious baby-nugget you’ve ever seen. It was a simple oversight but I still felt stupid, and very angry. So, I cried.

When I finished crying, I cried some more. I thought of my macho bro toughing it out in the stinky hospital trying to make his limbs come back to life. I figured that might put my photo fiasco in some sort of perspective, but I think I mostly just felt very sad.

That’s generally how the day progressed. With crying and thinking. And then I had a hard conversation with someone who I care deeply about. It didn’t go at all as I had imagined it. And that broke my heart a bit. So, naturally, I cried some more.

Here are the few photos that I managed to salvage of sweet Lily. They were the practice shots. Trust me when I tell you that the real ones where absolutely stunning. The background was perfectly soft, her warm naked skin exposed perfectly, and a slobbery smile to top it off.

You’ve read blog posts like this a hundred times over. You’ve heard people recount their bad days and then sum up the story with the perfect antidote. Or at least some sense of poetic justice. Alas, that is not the nature of this post.

Instead, I’d like to acknowledge that bad days happen, feelings get hurt, circumstances change. Such is the reality of our human existence. It happens on a scale so grand I can hardly comprehend it and in ways that blow my bad day right out of the water. I think we ought to open our arms and embrace that fact a bit more earnestly. Give ourselves permission to be sad, to sulk. We’re all bumbling about trying connect with eachother and the world around us. Making mistakes, being unkind, and all with the best of intentions. Yes, cheers to that mess! I think in the midst of it is a superbly sustaining kind of energy. I’m holding onto that. And crying a bit too.

This Is Henry.

This Is Alex (Again).

You met him a few months ago here.