Molly's Gift

Part journal entry, part appreciation post for a good friend. Links below so you can follow Molly in all the places.

Artwork by Molly Meng. Head to her website here, and follow her on Instagram for some beauty in that feed.

Molly saw it before I did. My new life. Post-breakup. I talked to her during the thick of it when I still felt buried in mud, my lungs heavy, with no clear path out. Everything was murky and scary. I remember the walk I took on that phone call with her, through the park, down Precita, up past my old apartment where I lived before Rick and I moved in together. Molly in my ear, painting a detailed fantasy of my new life with every step, forcing me to see past my present reality. 

Molly is a talented artist who has built a career creating stories about strangers. It’s second nature for her to do this, to create worlds we can’t see yet, fantastic places we want to live in, she collages together real and imagined stories so seamlessly it doesn’t matter what the facts are, you just get lost in the beauty of it all. What a gift that Molly did this for me. She saw it before I could - this sunny apartment, the white kitchen, the plants on the windowsill, me looking out over the treetops, happily building this new, fulfilling life. “This is the start of something”, I remember her saying. And how impossible that felt to me, my heart heavy with the ending of it all. 

Molly was there at the beginning of my relationship with Rick. I would spend hours laying on her couch in her art studio talking about him, worrying and wondering what would become of us. I’d tell her everything, the red flags, the tender moments. My head in the clouds, her working away at some intricate art piece. 

How lucky I am that she’s still here for the ending of it all, 12 years later. What a gift she’s given me, to have seen the things I couldn’t, to have taken her brush and painted a world I now happily inhabit. It’s the thing I think about most throughout this transition. Of all the people who showed up for me, and there were so many, Molly gave me something I didn’t know I needed, she talked me through my tears, made me feel more courageous, she told me it was all as it was meant to be, she manifested this life for me before I had the energy to do it on my own. Thanks, Molly, you magical being, for showing up exactly how I needed you. I hope I can give it back to you tenfold someday.