I did my best to remind her to run forward without looking back lest tribulations would sneak up on her in the form of lifted roots—in a forest of experience I have stumbled before. I looked into her eyes as she picked herself up and gave her all the strength I could muster. “You be smart not to fall again,” I told her as I held her pretty face in my hands as she nodded. Then came a cliff against the waters, we grasped hands and smiled—being together is all that mattered.