“Regardless of what happens with a partner in the future, you’ll have a baby. An amazing little being who will blow your mind and expand your heart and make you think things you never thought and remember things you believed you forgot and heal things you imagined you would never heal and forgive people you’ve begrudged for too long and understand things you didn’t understand before you fell madly in love with a tiny tyrant who doesn’t give a damn if you need to pee or sleep. You will sing again if you stopped singing. You will dance again if you stopped dancing. You will crawl around on the floor and play chase and peek a boo. It’s altogether cool.

And it will be lonely too, doing all of that without a partner. How lonely, I cannot say for you. You will hold your baby and cry sometimes in frustration, in despair, in exhaustion and inexplicable sorrow. You will watch your baby with joy and laugh at the wonder so pure and the beauty so unconcealed that it will make you ache.

You might decide to have a baby and find true love in the midst of that. You might search your soul and realize that you don’t want a baby if it means without a partner.

What’s important is that you make the leap. Jump high and hard with intention and heart.

Pay no mind to the vision society made up. It is up to you to make your life.”

Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things