He took a deep breath and looked at me with kind eyes and that caused me to cry on the outside. Kindness always makes the river flow. Slowly his friendship built me up. I am a slow learner though, and it took me more than a decade to understand what he did for me, and by then I couldn’t thank him in person.
So, the best I can do is live my best life from here on in and that is what I should have done in the beginning. Thank you, Birk, for learning about religion so you could teach me. Oh God, I owe you! So just a few weeks ago I visited my mother and, after drinking two beers, forgot to feed her.
“You’re a failure at life,” she said.
“You’re a very mean person,” I retorted, brandishing my finger at her like she did to me growing up. That was a mistake and I realized it quickly so I recovered the best I could by pulling the car door shut and locking it and then turning my head and shoulders away from her. Just breathe, I thought. By this stage in my life I should know better than to lose my cool and I should never, ever strike back. It’s just plain self preservation.
Purple Pennies 