What I learned in the month of May:

Missing someone physically hurts. It’s in the background of every thought, it’s the on the tip of your tongue thought, it’s always there and when you do forget it for the briefest moment, it’s a surprise when it comes back.

Watching your best friend mourn hurts. It's palpable pain. And yet, you know that what you feel is only the vaguest hint of how she hurts.

People can surprise you.

Love and compassion shows up from the people you don’t suspect, and is sometimes absent from the ones you counted on.

Friendship, real friendship, the kind that grew over years, is rare and strong and amazing.

The people in your lives connect, interconnect, and web together for a support that may not be visible but is constant and durable.

Life can be pretty shitty at times.

I am thankful, grateful, blessed, luckier than I knew for the friends in my life (and for my family)