It will not be long enough

I read this tonight. I didn't write it, but oh how I wish I had. Sometimes other people know how to capture the words that are deep inside you - the feelings and emotions that are bubbling in that inner place, just aching to be eloquently and accurately expressed - better than you ever could.

Here is my heart.

"Letter to Manhattan," by Tara Leigh Cobble in Crowded Skies

(page breaks mine)

"Sometimes you seem so alive to me, so much like a moving, breathing organism, that I almost feel like I should have your phone number on speed dial. I've been known to take long walks or go out to dinner alone, under the premise of spending time with you. I say goodbye to you when I leave, and I always feel like you greet me when I return (especially because the Chrysler Building leaves its lights on for me). That's why it doesn't seem so odd that I am writing a letter to you. It's almost as if you are sitting here with me right now, throwing back a cup of coffee on this autumn night...

Before I moved, everyone told me that you would change me. Some of them said it like a warning: "Don't let New York ruin you!" "Don't turn into a Yankee!" It almost seems absurd now when I think about it, mainly because I hope I will always be changing, growing, learning. How terrible life would be if we never evolved into better versions of ourselves. And that's what I believe you've done for me. Or rather, God has done it for me, but you've been His instrument.

You have taught me not to be so afraid, so bitter, so judgmental. And there is an urgency about being around you, a sense that no matter how long I am allowed to stay,

it

will

not

be

long

enough.

Even if I live here for five more years, that seems like such a short amount of time to cover so much ground, to see all your places, visit your museums, eat at your restaurants, learn to love so many strangers. And I do love every bit of it...

The diversity of age, race, language - this, I know, is a piece of what heaven will be like: every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And it is nearly

every

dream

I

have

come

true.

The culmination of so much more than I ever knew to expect.

I may never understand how much you are a blessing to me from God, but what I do know overwhelms me. And no matter where life takes me, you and your people will always have a place in my heart."