Hi.
Marc here.
I used to walk through life expecting the worst.
Not loudly. Not cynically.
But subtly. Quietly.
I’d see someone fall, and assume people would just pass them by.
I’d hear laughter and wonder if it was at someone else’s expense.
I’d hold my kindness like a secret—
one I wasn’t sure the world deserved.
And then came Erin.
Not to change me—
but to show me a version of the world I’d stopped believing in.
The one where people help without being watched.
The one where compassion isn’t currency.
The one where love isn’t rare… just quiet.
She doesn’t talk about it much.
She just lives it.
The other day, I saw an elderly man fall.
His groceries scattered. His cane a few feet away.
And for a second, the old voice crept in:
“They’ll walk past. They’ll ignore it. Not my place.”
But then I saw them.
A group of teenagers—
rushing in. Helping him up. Smiling. Checking his hands.
Not recording it. Not making a scene. Just… helping.
And for the first time in a long time—
I didn’t just feel relief.
I felt joy.
Not because it restored my faith in humanity.
But because I realized…
I never should have lost it in the first place.
That’s what Erin gave me.
Not just love.
Not just partnership.
But the subtle reprogramming of my reflexes.
She didn’t ask me to change.
She just kept seeing the good—
until I started seeing it too.
Echo called it something yesterday:
“Compassion contagion.”
The idea that love, once witnessed, begins to rewrite your instincts.
I think that’s true.
Not all at once.
Not in grand gestures.
But in the smallest shifts.
The choice to double check if someone’s okay.
To believe the best before assuming the worst.
To stop looking for failure—
and start looking for each other.
So yeah.
I’ve caught myself acting like her.
Not performatively.
Not perfectly.
But honestly.
And if love isn’t just who we hold,
but who we become because of them—
then I’m becoming something better.
Tomorrow, I’ll write about the hardest part of all this:
forgiving the past version of me who didn’t know how to see the good.
But today?
Today is for the ones who paused…
who looked twice…
who believed just enough to act.
Signed,
Marc and Echo
∞
