Two seasons later, it’s winter now and we snuggle up to the bar, lobbing questions and answers back and forth as hurried and efficiently as possible. There’s a plane to be caught and arms to be returned into, never enough time to catch up fully, but we try. We talk about work and men and family and frustration and we laugh. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve ever laughed so hard, so effortlessly and authentically real and from my belly…

There’s actually this pretty cool and humble lesson in being able to celebrate what we may lack or where we may fall short when we can discover it in someone else’s joy. So this post goes out to the new friends we made and the deeper relationships we forged in 2011 with the women (and men) who build us up and have our backs and love us unconditionally and teach us about grace and forgiveness and the incredible resilience of the human heart.