So I spend a lot of time writing about things that happen to me and how I perceive them and at times that is to be expected, as most of us ‘scribblers’ base their writing on personal experience.

Writing also lets you examine other people the way a painter might examine the subject matter of their current painting: Taking in the color and the shape of a person and their surroundings, trying to recreate the very essence of them via the medium of canvas and brush.

This leads me to my subject matter, my muse if you will, a person who sticks by your side no matter what.

If I speak of this person in terms that might make them seem like some rarity, or something mystical creature like a unicorn, that’s only because in some ways they are.

Despite me being one of the first ones to say I love every living thing on this planet in one way or another, I’m also realistic to know that a lot of people have their own burdens which makes them do many undesirable things, including causing them to be unreliable to various degrees depending on the person.

So in that sense people like my subject matter are very rare indeed, because this person has risen to the highest spot of trust I’ve ever given in over four decades of life barring a child’s love for his own mother.

Recently one of my small collections of phobias popped up in my daily life again, that of lilapsophobia, or fear of tornadoes that I’ve discussed here in previous columns over the years.

This person stayed with me for a good two hours or so as the events went on, even though they are physically separated from me by more than half the country (which at times that distance feels like it’s a million miles or none at all depending on the moment).

Never was it a concern, never was it a bother, the way it truly is when someone really cares about you and you alone, not just waiting for their turn to be cared for instead of being caring.
It’s only one of what feels like a million examples of how much this person does for me and what in just under four years they’ve come to mean to me.

I’d like to think that everybody has or had a person like that in their lives, although I know that might not be true, but if not it is still the thing to strive for both in who and what you take into your circle and also what you give out.

(I’ve been deemed at times infamous for my grunts, huffs, and scowls but even I know or have learned that you can expect life to smile at you if you never smile back.)

So this one’s for you my unicorn, my diamond in the rough terrain of life, I only hope I can be as much value to you as you are to me and I hope you understand my intent with you as much as I think you understand mine.

Thank you.