I don’t know who’s missing from the family picture that no one wants to actually take.

But I think I just wanted to be a voice in the conversation. I wanted you to know that I’m with you. That someone out there is also going to be crying in front of the Christmas tree out of sadness, exhaustion, loneliness, and grief.

Right now, we need to be creative. We need to be creative with our workdays and hanging out with friends and birthdays. We need to be creative with a tired Tuesday and another Friday night of takeout. We need to learn a new way to choose champagne even when it feels like there is not ever a reason to. We need to find places to sing after the musicals we were in got canceled and reasons to dance because Shipoopi might never see the stage.