And I guess I needed to hear that message. After all the shit we’ve been through, what we’re left with today is nothing more than what we started out with a decade ago. But it’s different.  It doesn’t look different, but it feels different.

Sometimes winning simply means getting back everything you lost.

It’s a gift, truly, even when it doesn’t look like it. Something below the surface. It’s the desert after the Little Prince leaves this planet, back home. But it used to have this beautiful, kind soul, and somewhere, it contains a well. And that makes the desert beautiful, too.

It’s waking up in the morning, knowing what one has earned. What one has fought for. And it makes the morning that much sweeter.

It’s the water you drink, after you’re so parched you thought you’d never make it. The food you eat after you’re starving. The music a deaf person hears for the first time. They should have heard it all along, but perhaps, in a way, this is even better.  Learning to appreciate this isn’t easy, but it is worthwhile.  As it is with everything worth anything.

Beautiful souls, you won’t always be seen.

But you will make this world a more precious place to live.

Thank you for that.