Ashley Cook Instagram – walking the same streets exactly one year later and while so many things feel the same— so many things are different. i am different. there has been loss that feels too great for words. big and permanent. the kind that leaves you heavy and heartbroken and unsure how to move forward at all. the kind that you watch others walk through and wish with everything in you that you could take it away. the kind that leaves you certain that life is not fair. and also there have been gifts too sweet for thank you to ever cover. there have been good things that have found me right on time. things i didn’t know i needed and yet— here they are. sweet and full and somehow mine. so many really, really good things that i have to say thank you for. and there have good things for those that i care most about. just as sweet. it’s always a bit both both. here is what i know for sure on the other side of a year that shifted and stretched and reshaped so much. in the good and in the hard, in the receiving and the letting go— two things. we need each other. we really, really need each other. together is the only way. and also we can trust. we can trust that there will be love enough, grace enough, peace and joy enough to make it through. there has been. phone calls with family that loves and loves, dinners with friends that are safe and easy, quiet walks on my own that pull me right back to the truest peace. brand new beauty in new places and the familiar laughter of people that i would do just about anything for. there has been just enough of all of it. goodness even so. the good has buoyed me and the hard has grown me. for every last bit of all of it i can and will say— thank you. what a year. ready for all that is ahead.