Dear San Antonio,
You weren’t what I expected. I had ideas in my head and very few of them happened. But what did happen was even better than what I had hoped. I experienced community in a different light. I completely enjoyed living in our apartment and having daily chats with our neighbors and their pets. We spent most of our time in a ten mile radius from our apartment and it was wonderful. We took long walks in our neighborhood. On the rare days off we sat outside cute little shops and drank coffee and didn’t look at the time.
I made friends with loneliness instead of being resentful of it. While I had plenty of time alone I rarely felt it. Instead I was beautifully reminded around the clock of how much I am loved. You gave me the opportunities to practice saying no to unhealthy invitations. I had the choice to decide what and who I wanted to be my priority this season. What a gift to be able to be fully present in this part of our story. So many early mornings and late nights.
All the hours I spent on the phone with family and friends while I cooked in our little kitchen. Our door always opened to the little patio that overflowed with plants and ivy. Thanksgiving morning shared with sweet friends. Christmas night when our neighbors invited us over for pie. Bdog being the perfect companion as always. The afternoon we went swimming and got caught in a downpour and ran and slid our way back to the apartment laughing and yelling. What I will remember the most is that we spent countless times laying on the floor laughing together and that was everything I had ever wanted.
We say goodbye in a week. Thirteen months filled with all the in-between that happens in life. You were everything we didn’t know we needed. I will always be grateful for how we learned to be us here.
I won’t forget.
