The box looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember what it had been used for. I was cleaning out a 9’x12′ section of an unused room at home Saturday that I’m converting into a video studio. So I was opening a lot of things that haven’t been opened lately.
It was the original artwork for something I had made and printed for an ex-girlfriend. I have trouble throwing things way that I’ve made, even after the sentiment expressed in the piece no longer applies, but it’s been long enough now that it was time to throw it away without regrets.
This left me thinking about a woman who I almost married. There were actually two women during that period who I almost married. I backed out of both and the end of each relationship was messy. As I looked at this piece that I had lovingly made for one of them back then, I could only find myself thinking how lucky I had been that I didn’t marry her. I had dodged a bullet. (She probably did, too.)

If you want permission to skip that Super Bowl party, here it is
Mom finds 28 reasons to put phone down, pay more attention to sons
We’re neither friends nor enemies, just strangers who share the past
Society needs storytellers to help make sense of a changing world
My bad teen poetry suggests I’ve always hungered for missing love
As you grow, learn to let go of things that no longer serve you
Now that his threat is truly gone, I realize my father hated himself