Katie Thompson

We have a complicated partnership, don’t we loves?

As a child we ran through the bluebonnet fields in Texas and climbed hills in South Carolina. We danced away, music as our partner and life as our dance floor.

Now, our roles are reversed. You still provide me a foundation, a place to make my stand. Only now, I carry you. Some days, you’re strong, quiet, reserved. Other days your screams are felt throughout my body, tremors shake my entire being.

I take my frustrations out on you, blaming an innocent part of me that only ever wanted to live and run free.

As you helped me to reach finish lines and realize many dreams, I now carry you with me, for every step that becomes a stumble, and every moment that exhaustion fills. We may no longer climb hills, instead we summit mountains of the most treacherous peaks, for they are the ones that you can’t see.

Your strength hasn’t been destroyed completely. Instead, it’s preserved as a memory, an embodiment of my soul now permanently attaching me to the awareness that we are living on a limited plane of existence with unlimited possibilities of our choosing. Despite our perceived shortcomings, we are human.

You taught me that my weaknesses are indeed strengths, as they are a part of me, you are a part of me, and all of it a part of something much larger than we can comprehend, and more beautiful than we can imagine. We are still together.