I was in the car when I got the text. A woman I’ve known for years and years was dying. I hadn’t been in touch with this dear friend of mine for a while because my circle shifted as it seems to from one season to the next. I’d known about her battle with cancer because she’d shared about it openly on Facebook. I should have known to interpret her positive posts through her immense faith and optimism. She was one of the most hopeful people I’ve ever known, so of course it was worse than many of us thought.

I’m more of a nerd than I let on. But it’s 2018 and a surprising number of my friends are playing Dungeons and Dragons and they’re plenty happy to share about it on social media. So, I am emboldened and confess that I love reading epic fantasy. I adore it. I’m excited about world-building and dragons and unicorns and swords and magic. Twenty years ago, some of you might exclaim, “Nerd alert!” at this confession, but we’re in a day and age that celebrates imagination more freely than before. In other words, pop-culture has embraced it.

I generally read this stuff before bed. Then I turn the light off, lay back and I talk to God until I crash. Here’s a word-for-word transcript of one of our recent conversations: