Erie, Pennsylvania October 2nd and 3rd 2026 Cancer Free

Sometimes the space between what we have and what we dream of is not a dark place. Sometimes it is warm and beautiful, flooded with hard-won light. Sometimes love lives there. This is the liminal path.

Darling, the accidental two-queen-bed room and the sleepless night and the sunset and Oliver’s and you. I love you, and I am so in appreciation of the fact that this is our second trip to Erie in 2026, and the last one was a joy and a horror rolled into one. The sewn-shut soul window and the fear undercutting it all. Health has prevailed, and here we are, dear heart.

You are well. You are cleared. I am celebrating you. You want to be excessive. You want to care for me in a style that you can provide. Gem City Shootout, they call it, but for me it is a reunion of us in Erie—in the place where we first chose to run to after my surprising cross-country trip in 2018. We have so many wonderful experiences now, and we are still planning more.

You know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you said things when you were battling the black demon that were very close to promises. I love you, baby, and I don’t want to call you on that aloud. But here I am, placing it where you may find it, if you choose to look. Like the photo above, I am choosing to walk the path between light and dark, between what I need and what you need. You are what I need. Just you.

Sweetheart, I am not content in the waiting—this is not what I dream of for us. But I am not willing to create a circumstance in which I must mourn the love of my life while he breathes to illustrate a point. So I wait. Your love cascades over me like the hard-won sunlight after a long winter, like warm water inviting me in.

Beautiful. But still.

This is the liminal path. Outside of things.