I'm a hyper vigilant worrier married to an explorer.

For our 5th wedding anniversary, a letter about fear, marriage, and loving someone braver than you.

How do you love someone without killing the exact thing that makes them alluring?

She moves through the world brushing roadside shrubbery, chasing sunsets, hitching motorcycle rides with strangers in South Asia

I scan for threats, missteps, exit routes.

The secret to a loving gift communicates:

"I see you."

open.substack.com/pub/wesmann/...

If reading is an author’s direct communication to someone’s mind, then sharing the right book is telepathy between readers.

This year, I've been having fun roaming bookstores.

“Aight, aight, aight,” I said, throwing my hands up on the sidewalk as if I were a platoon leader. “Imma get a book for all of ya’ll. What you in the mood for?”

Outside, the children traded punches across the intersection.

Not my problem.

I cut back inside. “Did those kids just leave by themselves?”
The doorman shrugged.

“And you two have a great day,” he said, opening the front door.
I nodded to him and tightened my scarf on the way out.
The sidewalk was empty.

Instead, the miniature combatants bolted through an empty lobby and greeted the grinning doorman.

Until the lobby, adult eyes focused on the floor numbers. Every ear anticipated “let’s go kids” when the doors opened.

Two floors down, we huddled in the opposite corner as a woman entered. She looked at my wife, then the kids, then me. Nope, we couldn’t be the parents.

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