Yesterday a grown man cried in my arms. Not ten minutes prior, we were complete strangers. Our paths had never crossed before. Yet there I sat with his arms wrapped around me as he bared his soul to me, someone he didn't know. I felt the wave of despair and grief come over him like the deafening silence before a storm. His chest expanded to its max as it filled with the intake of breath, much like a receding tide moments before a tsunami hits land.

When it hit him, it hit hard. His body wrecked with the soul crushing sobs of a man whose life was forever changed in an instant.

His young son was gone. Taken too soon by the fallout of deep depression.

I hold him and say nothing. My hand caresses his hair as my other hand presses into his chest. He says there is nothing but a hollow emptiness where his heart is. He tells me about his son. He let's me into his life for a moment, sharing such beautiful memories that would have seemed mundane to some, but so very precious to him. I feel privileged, humbled, and honored to be with this man in his darkest moments.

I tell him that he must keep living until he feels alive once again. The pain will never be gone, but a new way of life is forged within the darkness. I ask him to take care of himself, to have a hot meal and drink fluids. It's so easy to forget the basics when a person turns on autopilot to survive.

That's when I realized that everything I am, everything that makes me the person sitting here with this stranger, sharing in his grief, is because of you. You taught me patience and kindness. You showed me what it meant to love and be loved. I live my life in humility and aim to stay humble and grateful no matter what comes my way. It's all because of you. Your light shines through me every moment of my waking life. I am so grateful for you.