I nearly cried this morning with joy. My best friend from Junior High has written me a short email to say "Hi, is this you?" Back in seventh grade, I met Mary in the first week of school. She was late for gym (I was too, but I can't remember why) because she was at the dentist with her mom. Mary is the only child, and hearing, of two deaf parents. So she was interpretting for my Mom's appt. with the dentist. I was facinated, and we talked all the way to gym that morning. And we never stopped, for several years—we were "joined at the hip" as they say.

Being so warmly invited into her family, her friends, and her church, was a defining moment in my life. I learned a lot of sign language from them, growing up, but we lost contact when I moved from Ohio my senior year of high school. But I'd never forgotten them or how much they meant to me, and I've missed her for twenty years now. It finally dawned on me, about two weeks ago, to try looking up deaf churches back in my hometown to see if there was anyone I could email to see if they knew how to get ahold or her, her family, or friends of her family. She wrote me just a sentence or two, but it meant all the world to me to hear from her. I can't wait to catch up further.

I did make it to the gym today, but what an effort that was. Well, maybe not the workout itself, those seem to be getting a tiny bit easier each time. But just the mental block of "ugh, now I have to go exercise." I'm going to have to find a way to get through that more often.

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Recently Listened to: Tori Amos, "To Venus and Back" (Disc 1: Live and Orbiting)