I was walking Lily yesterday morning (she was actually walking me) and we ran into a woman with a small white dog (don’t ask me the kind because I suck in this dog department-naming kinds of dog-thing). We started chatting and I asked her how old the puppy was because it looked young. She told me she didn’t know the age because it was her daughter’s dog which her daughter got somewhere at some point when she was high. Her daughter is now in treatment, and the mom has the dog.

I told her how sorry I was to hear about her daughter. She told me that this was stint number two and that they were running out of options. She talked about how addiction is brutal, awful and then she said, “It’s killing me while it’s killing her.” We both started to cry and we hugged.

F***k.

I feel like a broken record as I continue to remind myself that good comes from not-so-good, but I was having trouble seeing it for her in the moment. And, this was a reminder to me that when people are hurting, you can’t always tell from the outside.

We chatted a bit more. I told her I had my daughter’s dog and that it was a blessing but also a bit tough at times. We did the Minnesota chit chat thing, weather, weather, gardening, weather, sports, etc. and then we went on our way.

I watched her walk away in front of us. The cute puppy kept looking up at her and she kept looking back down at it. It was the sweetest thing, and I wished I had noticed it before. I guess that’s the blessing … they have each other.

Life is beautiful and beautifully complicated at the same time. I’m praying for them.

Jessica