3 AM in MIA

She showed up in tears to a first date.  9:30 am at a coffee Shop in Boca Raton. I think she was aware that I had driven up from Miami or she would have otherwise cancelled. She apologized and explained that the husband with who she had been separate while he maintained a girlfriend for the last two years, had finally moved out and that the four and five year old girls were experiencing anxiety in different ways.    And this morning it had been the four year old's screams and tears and mom's tears at the early childhood development center drop off. But mom is an Ivy League MBA with a startup in the middle of a round of venture capital and torn between professional obligations and emotions that as a child refugee of a regime that killed half of her family (they were in the military) ill equipped to predict what her child would feel and frozen with empty arms and eyes full of tears as the school teachers pulled the child from her. She had me at the first wipe of her eyes an...

Anger, was a luxury I could not afford. The bitter words she placed in my mouth.   The contemptuous thoughts in my mind The strain in my heart. The tremble in my hands. I looked past Anger and saw Fear, Anxiety and Pain.  Life was too precious to afford time spent with Anger.  I took a bypass.  Away from Anger.  Through Fear and Anxiety and right into Pain. On the other side of Pain I was greeted by Laughter and Joy.    Laughter and Joy were hard to see though Anger's fog of war . ..I was lost and sinking deep...