“BROKEN KNIGHT” by L.J.Shen

” I’d once asked my sister, Emilia, what it felt like.
To be normal. To be healthy. To be genetically privileged.

She’d said:

– Days tick by, as you expect them to. Like fanning pages in a calendar.
You make plans.
Sometimes you forget them.
Sometimes you keep them. 
Sometimes cancel them.
But you never doubt you can make them.

You let things – mundane things, like bad traffic or getting caught in the pouring rain or rude, inconsiderate people – ruin your day, not realizing how precious said day is. How unique. How this day will never come again.
No day will look quite like it.

And that’s how you look back, years after, wondering where all the time went.

When she saw what was on my face, though, she’d added quickly:

– But I learned a long time ago that maybe a reminder of the fact that we aren’t here forever is exactly what we need to make the most out of life.
And I learned that because of you.

This is was why I’d decided to adopt my beautiful son.
To bring my younger son into the world.
To get married. To start a family.
To love hard. Fiercely. With abandon.

This is why I never denied myself anything I wanted.

Not only was life too short, but I wanted my beautiful family to remember that, too.”

Kindle, 2019