The Tallest Mountain

Hey Butterfly.


Your new job doesn't even like texting.  So I don't know how you're going to be able to read these.


But we're going to give it a shot.


We're gonna make this happen.
_____
It was 3 years ago, if I remember right, that I laid on a bed in my aunt and uncle's home, getting ready for bed, as I visited them for Thanksgiving.


It may be remembered as the last one we spent apart.


It is also, if I remember right, when I started an online love letter.
_____
So here we are, 3 years later.  Yes, it's the day before Thanksgiving.  But since I will be working all day tomorrow, I wanted to get a step ahead.


I wanted to write you a Thanksgiving Love Letter.


Thank you.  Thank you for the exact person you are.


Thank you for seeing me as 100 times as much as I was, when we first met in person.


Thank you for being so alive.  Thank you for wanting to experience everything, and to skip nothing. 


Thank you for waiting until I showed up, instead of settling for some doctor who would have given you everything, except happiness and honesty.


Thank you for fighting the good fight.  Thank you for thinking it mattered, when no one was looking for a decade.


Thank you for working so hard to become the person you were, when we met.  Thank you for working so hard to become the person you've become, since.


Thank you for stubbing your toe and then thanking God for giving us the doorstop.


Thank you for knowing life is a maze, which means steps back and steps forward, if your gut tells you so.


Thank you for being my fellow Wright brother, on this runaway train that is now lifting off the ground.


Thank you for family is family is family.


Thank you for writing, and painting, and talking, and biking and baking and walking.


Thank you for broken towel racks, and for sharing your Bit O' Honeys.


Thank you for putting up with the Easter Egg Hunt known as my gym socks.
Thank you for putting up with the Scavenger Hunt known as my nasal strips.


Thank you for showing me how to parent with grace and joy.


Thank you for reminding me to always be surprised, when a child gets lost.


Thank you for being so patient.
Thank you for believing in the better future.


Thank you for loving my parents before you'd met them.


Thank you for welcoming me into your family.


Thank you for seeing the athlete inside me.
Thank you for seeing that I wasn't lazy.


Thank you for caring about my body like a mechanic cares for her own car.


Thank you for everything, so far.


Thank you for having the courage to jump with me. 


Thank you for sharing your world.


I love you, Vanessa Abbott.


Butterfly Warrior