I signed divorce papers

On a blue-sky Sunday in January

“Let everything happen to you -
Beauty and terror -
Just keep going
No feeling is final.”

―Rainer Maria Rilke

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It was not momentous or dramatic. The notary met us at the library. Everything was calm. No tears, no anger.

Signature of the Petitioner, here. Signature of the Respondent, here.

It seems so odd that any institution has anything at all to do with it. How can they possibly have a say in how you separate yourself and your life from the person you chose to be with, once, forever. There’s the legal agreement, sure. But the two people who made that legal agreement years ago aren’t here. They don’t exist anymore.

People change.

I am not who I once was. When I stop analyzing all that went wrong or sideways, all that contributed to the ending of a marriage, I see a simple picture.

Two people met on a path, and for years they walked the same path. Side by side. But over time, slowly, incrementally, the path separated into two lines, and the lines angled in different directions.

🔗 Of course it’s not that simple 👆 but actually yes it is. Not easy, but simple. Learning a lot about acceptance lately. It hurts but I’m alive.