Heart of a Lion

Just thinking about my good friend C. My boys had a good time at her place yesterday, and I was one of the few 'new guard' there--most of the adult company were people who 'knew her when.'

When I met C three years ago, she was a shadow. It's hard to describe, but I'll try. Any woman who has ever been in a controlling relationship knows what it looks like from the outside, and it was clear that C was there. She was a ghost. She measured every word that came out of her mouth. She flinched. A lot.

Probably the best thing that ever happened to her was when her XDH served her divorce papers. Because she disobeyed him.

People who knew her 'after' expected her to fall to pieces. Somehow, I had my money on her emerging better and stronger than she was before.

She is, after all, a lion.

So those of us gathered yesterday all agreed that we like the new and improved C (who is in reality the C who was there all along, under the layers and layers of wool). It's very cool seeing her now. I told her six months ago "It's nice to be with *you*--the real you!"

She looked surprised. "That's so funny, that's what my girlfriends from college tell me!"

SO I got to meet those friends and confirm what I knew all along. C's a lion.

I wish I could say I had something to do with the transformation, but sometimes, it's good enough just to bear witness.

You go, girl.