Chapter 17
March arrived like a roaring lion in the dark night,
bringing fierce wild winds that shook the barren tree branches,
and heavy freezing rains that washed away the dirty gray snow.
The earth slowly began to soften under the wet assault,
turning the frozen front lawn into a massive muddy playground,
and signaling the very earliest beginnings of the coming spring.
Trevor finally accepted a completely new job offer downtown,
working for a small respected non-profit environmental community organization,
and taking a significant but manageable planned financial pay cut.
He was incredibly excited about the deeply meaningful daily work,
happy to leave the soul-crushing corporate grind totally behind him,
and relieved to have a schedule that actually prioritized his children.
We celebrated his very first day with a nice quiet dinner,
baking a rich chocolate cake with thick sweet dark frosting,
and letting the excited kids stay up an hour past bedtime.
He talked passionately about his new supportive office work environment,
describing his incredibly kind colleagues and the important local projects,
and smiling in a way I had not seen in several decades.
It was incredibly validating to witness his complete personal resurrection,
to see him finally prioritizing his own mental health and happiness,
and rejecting the toxic materialistic expectations of his past life.
The kids easily adapted to his new incredibly stable daily routine,
loving the fact that he picked them up from elementary school,
and helped them with their complex math homework every single afternoon.
The muddy footprints on the old hardwood hallway floors multiplied,
but I honestly did not mind the extra daily cleaning chores,
because they were the beautiful chaotic marks of a lived-in home.
I spent my quiet mornings aggressively scrubbing the kitchen tiles,
listening to the hard rain violently hitting the glass windowpanes,
and feeling a deep profound sense of complete inner domestic satisfaction.
The house was slowly breathing deeply in the damp spring air,
stretching its old wooden bones after the long difficult winter sleep,
and preparing for the bright vibrant life that was surely coming.
March was a transitional difficult month of mud and heavy rain,
May you like
but it carried the beautiful undeniable promise of absolute total renewal,
and washed away the very last lingering traces of our past pain.
