Even in the Rainstorm (a poem to the girl I was on my 30th birthday)

We were born with a halfway broken heart

and a mind that's against us.

We are our own worst enemy.

Our life will be an uphill battle,

so put on your armor.

Fear not, though, little one.

For every impossible day

there will be a refuge

in the ones we love

and the stories we discover

living inside of us.

I'm so endlessly proud of us

for staring down our demons and ghosts

and taking a sword to them.

We're so much more than them.

We're a fire that burns

even in the rainstorm.

We're thirty years old now

but our journey is still at the beginning. I stand amazed at where we are

and stare in awe at where we'll go.

From this day on

I'm no longer our enemy.

I'll strive to be our best friend

and I'll stroke our embers

until we're a roaring blaze.