tonight – suddenly – I am distinctly remembering that first week in Berlin – the sharp biting chill and the thick foreign layers brusquely piled against the cold yet also cradling the treasured depths of warmth inside everything candlelit the unusual syncopation of European cars on wet roads filtering up four floors through the tall straight panes to swerve into the pop and gurgle of the radiator and the creak of the parquet under my feet bouncing off die Deckenleisten and the distance measured by the signature of the U1 rumbling all mixed up with grey days navigating trains and buses and endless stairs to history with my rusted shut Deutsch and the bright tantalizing market canal confusion and your splendid chuckle and shining mind traveling with me through ascendant light plays and security geeking prodding me to explore deeper and consider more about all the connections between these living pasts and futures and where we stood at the bubbling brewing Berlin edge of everything.

It’s a diamond, this jeweled slice of German winter I get to carry in my heart, and I am so deeply profoundly and utterly grateful that I get to know such amazing people as you to light up the world for me.