(2/2) "And she said something to me, young Joe, that sticks with me still: “Joe, art, art is healing. Those who make art often have something to tell, something to hide from, something that needs expressing.” And in the walls of that house, I grew, I healed, and I created. I don’t know if it was a sudden change. It might have been something that happened as soon as I went into that house, and I just didn’t realize it until later, or maybe it was a gradual change that slowly happened with every day I went to her house. But the world became wonder itself.

There was never enough information. There was never enough learning, never enough pictures, never enough stories, never enough creating. It was like I became a child again.

It’s easy for me to mark the milestones of my life with the people I’ve met who’ve changed me. That woman - that woman. She’ll never know how much she changed Joe’s life. You’ll never know how much you change someone’s life.

You know, I have gotten to the point in my life where I sometimes find myself swimming in my old memories, rambling, thinking things more glorious than they really were, maybe. I can’t tell sometimes. It’s - it’s easy to tell a story over and over again, maybe a bit differently each time, and then each version becomes the truth and you forget what it really was, and what was the truth.

But I suppose that’s okay. Maybe It’s okay to see things more beautifully, with more wonder. Too often this world batters us with struggle and reasons not to, and there’s a lot of wonder that gets missed. There’s beautiful moments everywhere, always. Never forget to recognize and to enjoy your moments."