Dearest Catherine,

Less that an hour ago we parted at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Now I sit here writing to you, because...I know only you will understand what I am feeling. It is early morning. All Hallow's Eve has ended for another year, and, I have never in my life been so happy. Was it a dream, Catherine? Did the two of us walk the city last night, openly, together?

I have known this city well, but I have never seen it quite this way before. Many nights I have sat alone on building tops, looking out at the glowing lights. As beautiful as those lights were, they were always distant. From the streets below the sound of the city would drift up to me, like an echo of a melody from far away. There were nights when those city sounds made the most beautiful music I had ever heard. There were nights when, I wondered if I were the only one who could hear it. Tonight I became part of that music.

"Sometimes we must leave our safe places and walk empty-handed amongst our enemies".

How many times have I read those words? How many times have I presumed to understand them? Not until I walked among the crowds, heard their laughter, felt the warmth of their passing bodies, did I realize what those words truly meant.

“Leave our safe places…”

Tonight I left my safe place. Tonight a dream became real. We sat, hand in hand, on a bench by the river, like ordinary people, watching the sun rise over the city. That one moment was worth everything, Catherine. Everything we've risked, everything we have fought for. Everything.

“Out of your whole life, give but a moment.
All of your life that has gone before, all to come after it
So you ignore, so you make perfect the present
Condense, in a rapture of rage for perfection's endowment
Thought, and feeling, and soul, and sense
Merged in a moment which gives me at last
You, around me for once
You, beneath me
You, above me”

Sleep well, my dearest Catherine, sleep well.
~Vincent