challenging

Maddie more than anyone knows my heart.

My fondest memories of her are each of three times I’ve been able to sit with her for hours on end discussing each issue boggling my mind. The first was in a car in a Target parking lot, the second at a local restaurant, and the third on her family’s docked boat. In each of those instances she heard me sob, cuss, question, and wonder, and never made me feel as though any of those reactions were irrelevant or unappreciated.

This unending grace that Maddie shows challenges me to be a better person.

She challenges me to look inside myself, my peers, and the world around me. She doesn’t let herself, me, or anyone else look at the world through a tiny microscope. Rather, she encourages them to see everything from all perspectives. To her, every side of one story has a worthy counterpart. She looks at life as a busy two-way street: people constantly coming and going on their way, on their own terms, but each with their own destination. And what’s most incredible is that she cares about each of those destinations. I’ve seen tears falling down Maddie’s cheeks while her mouth speaks words of hope for her wrongdoer. I’ve heard her redeem the character of a person who has slandered Maddie’s own.

She gives me a hug when I need comfort, a nod when I’m looking for reassurance, advice when I find myself lost, and a verbal slap in the face when my personality shows its less-than-desirable side.

In the most beautiful and complicated sense, Maddie is challenging. And for that I know both I and the world are better off.