But none of the other kids have to blog on the weekends, Mama!

"We choose peacekeeping over truth-telling, and we call that friendship."

I give thanks for the friends and loved ones who've had the courage to challenge my stubbornness, strike at the root of my considerable pride, and point out the imperfections of my love. I'm thankful for Anna's telling me she hated the "changes" I'd made the year after I graduated college, changes that made me unrecognizable and wholly unlovely, that drew me out of myself for all the wrong reasons and in all of the wrong ways. I wasn't in a place to hear you then, Anna, but you spoke the truth in love at the immediate cost of our friendship (but a girl can hope for future "Peace Frog" and goldfish nights, can't she?). I'm thankful for you, Kim, in honestly responding to the email I wrote you several months ago when you said, "You have to love someone a lot to be this hurt." I'm thankful for you, Marieka, in knowing where I am and making yourself vulnerable to me for the sake of honesty in our friendship. And so it goes. I might write this last all night and never reach the end of it.

I'm thankful for the difficult conversations that have come before this moment, for all of the things that were hard to hear. There are things to say. I'm the girl to say them. I pray that strength keeps time with humility. I pray for the absence of fear.

With a grateful heart, I give thanks.