To Live is to Fly

My God, it has been a LONG LONG time since a post! So much living has happened in the last six, almost seven months! It's almost more than I can wrap my mind around. I suppose '09 started in the same sort of haze that ended '08. I snapped out of it a bit early in the year, did some soul searching, and ended up with a new tattoo. A little red swallow on my left wrist, with the world "volare" printed alongside. Latin for "fly". Reminding me, at every moment, to rise above the things that have pulled me down, and will no doubt threaten to do the same again. It reminds me that to live is to fly. Someone picked up on that recently, and I fell in love with him.

Yes. You read that correctly. Let me backtrack. In the early days of 2009, I was blindsided with the return of the boy. It wasn't a dramatic, or tearful, or violent return. It was strangely calm. We began to re-learn how to care about each other. We learned how to be friends, and how to atone for the ways in which we had wronged each other in the past, and to forgive for the ways we had been hurt. It was neccesary. He was here in the neighborhood and in my life for a few months. And in those months, a lot of wounds were healed. His struggles were his own, and not mine to shoulder. And I was finally, definitively able to end that chapter of my life. Things wrapped themselves up in a way that was settled, and clean, and just ok. It was bittersweet, but good. It was what I needed.

And then...

Life completely changed. At a time when I least expected it, I found the most perfect man in the world. He was nothing I was looking for and turned out to be everything I needed. And since that magical Little Rock wedding weekend back at the end of May, I have felt happier and more at ease than I thought life could even afford. Now don't get me wrong, it is not without its obstacles. There are complications. There is distance. But most importantly, and at the bottom of it all, there is love. I have taken a leap of faith, and he hasn't let me fall. It is the best feeling in the world. I don't ever want it to end.

In addition to being in love (or maybe, because of being in love...), life has been pretty stellar. I was fortunate to be a member of the company for "Us", in addition to working on the costumes for it. It was a spectacularly successful, and I'm happy to continue working on it. I've had some great auditions, spent really wonderful time with close friends, and I'm working on several weddings that are really important to me. I am currently getting extremely excited about the upcoming McLemore-Stratton nuptuals, as they will be another oppurtunity to celebrate friends in love, and re-unite with my nearest and dearest.

Mom just came up for a visit, a whole week in NYC! We had a wonderful time, saw two excellent shows, and the entire periphery of Manhattan, thanks to the Circle Line. It was a wonderful visit, and made me wish I got to spend more time with Nance.

So yes, life is...as close to perfect as it's been. I can't wait to see how it continues to unfold.