I was sitting on an airplane traveling from RDU in NC to New Orleans and before I made it to my layover in ATL, I was looking at the clouds and remembering my first time in a plane as a kid leaving my home (Puerto Rico) and trying to figure out if clouds were made of pillows and whipped cream… I had not yet met that thing called cotton candy or marshmallows in a way that was deep enough for me to be concerned about what clouds might could possibly be made of.

And then suddenly the clouds formed a heart and I smiled. I remembered wanting to talk to my grandmother (Abuela Yeco) as a kid and excitedly calling her on a phone to tell her of seeing the clouds on an equal footing…

I wish she was alive to see the heart in the clouds with me.

I am the granddaughter of a reading woman, the grandaughter of a storyteller and beach goer… and I get to look at the grandchildren of Abuela Yeco and see her in y’all… each of us…readers and knowledgeseekers. She would have been proud of each of us.