Anniversary

We met in a Buddhist meditation group on September 11, 2011. That very day she took my hand and said, "Let's be good friends," and I beamed back yes, yes, yes.

A week later on September 18, we walked from her house to Laurelhurst Park, telling our stories, and she spread her hands wide, gesturing to the plane trees, the lake, the light. She said simply, "All this," and my heart was hooked. All this. With gratitude our bond, we laughed. We are still laughing.

For two years we did a dance of approach, then duck and run away, approach again. Queer women in our sixties, single and perfectly satisfied with being single for a decade and more, we were cautious but pleased by the ways our energies fit, the ways our hearts quicken to the same words. Gratitude, kindness, acting on behalf of the world we want for all children: this is our shared language. All This. 

And so on the18th of September, 2013 we said sure. Yes. Let's enjoy each other, let's share what's left of our lives, let's keep on laughing. This year, celebrating our anniversary with a few days at my apartment as I come back from a health scare, All This includes a double rainbow.