"out of a clear blue sky"*

Udaipur, India, 2009

Sometimes people are rough. Sometimes they hurt you, even (often) unintentionally. And then you have to decide. You spend a lot of time deciding: deciding on how to address the hurt, approach the person who inflicted it, etc. etc. And sometimes, a very some-of-the-time, the response that comes out of you is one of sudden compassion. And you know that you had nothing to do with that response. It was a grace, to the other person, of course, but--perhaps even more importantly--to yourself. And that is humbling indeed.

Happy Valentine's Day, world.

*A phrase my late grandmother used for serendipity; a little more concrete, even beautiful, than "out of the blue."