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Thank you, Crowmama, and thank you, Nancy for your very kind words. I'm humbled and grateful. You are both gems in the starry crown - encouraging, generous, and supportive.

Thank you, Sobi, for being our dream-keeper. This celebration was wonderful - so many gifts, so much talent and sensitivity! With your prompts you inspired stories and video out of the ordinary. You always make me think; you always send us deeper into the heart of things. I'm already anticipating the next red-letter day.

Carole

Dear Nancy,

Thank you so much for your kind comments. I am so used to angst, this, I must admit, was a bit of stretch for me, but I have many good examples in fandom to bring a bit of the lighthearted to it. It helps that when you are in that situation - desperately tired, certain you're doing it wrong, and completely overwhelmed - that everything feels like the end of the world. You need people to remind you with words, but also with actions, that a little tweak here and the end of the universe is thwarted, at least for another day...

Dear Crowmama,
What a delightful, lighthearted touch you brought to poor Catherine's dilemma. So she'd never before picked up Karst's Hydrogeology and Geomorphology? I laughed! I liked 'his lonely bed ...unmade...unkempt...but miraculously theirs' because of the gentle humor in your choice of words and the care in their placement. 'You know how I get' said Catherine, and I smiled to think of her so frazzled that she was reduced to offering, rather sarcastically, a 'hearty handshake' as an anniversary gift. More laughter from this reader. But then he suggests a night 'out' and when they return the miraculous has happened and things are in order once more. Perhaps they won't stay that way, for life is not orderly, but they coped, didn't they, with a little help from a babysitter and some dear friends and their own generous, loving hearts.
I wanted to thank you for your kind words about my little effort and tell you I so enjoyed the gentle, loving kindness evident in your story.
Nancy

Dear Carole,
"... that softened every jagged ridge, that settled to his every emptiness ..." I love the flow of 'softened' and 'settled' and the vision of cloud and mountain ... it's all simply exquisite and this is just your opening. I could so easily quote a list of such beautiful phrases, sentences, amazing pargraphs from this piece. For bringing light, for showing us their love with delicacy and depth, thank you!
Nancy

*
Dear Crowmama,

I also want to thank you for your thorough survey of the submissions. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated it. As the owner of BatBland I’m not in the position of doing the same, but I think that the writers are grateful to read well thought comments about their stories, and see the best parts of them pointed out and appreciated as you did. And also the readers perhaps are helped to better see some of the facets, and glad to compare takes and opinions.

Personally, I was thrilled to see so many different paths developing from the same starting point. Central Park always fascinated me, and I feel nonsensically happy that Vincent has such a “garden” at his disposal. Spring is blossoming here in Italy, and I’m sure that he was immersed in the April night smells the night he found Catherine. And, I was in Rome in 2004, at a later but equally memorable Simon and Garfunkel concert in front of Coliseum. According to the Rome mayor, we were 600,000, singing along the same songs that perhaps Vincent and Catherine listened to, that night. It’s a milestone in my life, and I thank you all for helping me to connect it to B&B.

Ciao,
S

Thanks for reading, Crowmama. I'm pleased you found the story satisfying. And yes, I am very fond of Winslow too.

~ Zara

Thank you, Mama Crow, for your comments---you made me smile (which is saying something before coffee ) I never thought that Catherine was a high society party girl before Vincent---certainly he changed so very much in her life but he couldn't have given her anything that wasn't already there in her personality to start with. This was a fun time of her life to explore--before the assault, before Vincent, as she was beginning to think about who she really was and what she wanted from life.

Lynette: Windows 8 is my freakin' nemesis. It won't let me watch any videos that have to be seen by an external viewer for some reason. Any Windows people around here? Never should have switched back from Apple...grrr...snark...

Krista: You are queen of secondaries my dear. Loved Dinah! I have met Dinah around these parts. I love how the seeds of the Catherine that we know are there. Vincent even has a vision of speaking to "our Catherine," but she is not quite ready yet. She's still cooking. I loved that aspect of your story. I also love Catherine's "super power", her ability to get people to open up, also made an appearance. As I said, the seeds are there, but with no sun, no rain, they stay dormant.

Andrew: What a fun and lovely format for your addition. I like the poster next to Catherine's. After reading her journal, maybe they both have prophetic powers!

Bluebird: I LOVED your story from last year's Anniversary, (I read it about a two weeks ago, and again and again....) and this one is just as good. Your plot is tight, and dialogue is exciting. The fact that Vincent is a little more rough around the edges in his twenties is a great, well-thought through, touch, and Catherine fighting with Steven, just beautiful. In the end, where Vincent hoped/counseled neither of the them to settle, gave me chills. Your take why he didn't have a relationship Below just blew my mind.

Brittany: I too believe that we "know" our soulmates before we meet them, (or meet them again! )

JoAnn: So much to admire! First off, the way that Catherine makes up her mind to go to the concert even if she has the inkling that it's probably "a bridge (over troubled water) too far," is soo very young adult. I think all of us can remember doing something so foolhardy. Then the way Vincent reframes it is perfect. Very him. Loved it!

Rebecca: You picked my favorite songs! It would have been amazing to actually be at that concert and exciting to imagine V & C there. Of course, I would have been seven at the time...

Zara: I am very impressed at how you approached the idea of the concert sideways. From the first line was transported. To see Vinent so vulnerable, still learning himself after his illness was so uniquely satisfying, and any time I can learn about Winslow is a good time.

Thank you all for taking the time to contribute to this. I have been looking forward to reading and experiencing these ever since I learned about the challenge and you all didn't disappoint.

I remain amazed by the talent of this fandom...and blessed beyond words to be included in it. Thank you, Sobi, for this challenge, for giving us the stage to create our magic. My thanks also to the other authors for the diversity of their stories and the imagination in telling. Such lovely works, all in their disparate ways. Thank you.

It's always a thrill for me to see a challenge met with such disparate concepts - so much talent, so much thought, so much glorious language shared around a central theme that nothing seems repetitive of another submission. I have been moved to tears several times, sighed happy sighs, raised my eyebrows in "aha!" moments of new insights. Thank you to everyone for this rich gift of words and vision. Thank you, Sobi and others, for working so hard behind the scenes to ensure we have much to celebrate - not just the anniversary of Vincent and Catherine, but the re-commitment to this miracle fandom that still thrives and produces such wonders.

So far I have read Nancy's "With All My Heart" and Carole's "You Arrive in the Flower and the Water".

Nancy - What a gorgeous little gem. Your words are always simple, elegant, but so layered with meaning. I have greatly enjoyed your poetry and in this I find some of that thoughtfulness. I was very moved by Catherine's last line, “I’ve come to where you are, Vincent. My journey is done.” - So perfect.

Carole - You know a story is good when you feel it in your bones. Every line you write paints a picture, but also, miraculously, echoes a feeling. Your words create such truth in the fiction. Without even saying the word freedom, (I checked, you didn't use it once, at least so Word tells me, ) you describe what Catherine has given to Vincent: freedom and courage to unleash another joyful, radiant, part of himself. She arouses (and when I say arouses...oh zing! ) the courage and impetus to go Above at dawn and discover that his shirt was, "...the very color of the April sky..." What an amazing moment of beauty and freedom.

"But having at last said yes, he was learning to say no." - I simply adore this idea. He deserves a little time and the ability to choose. Is there anything more perfect than choosing to spend the day in the way YOU want.

As always, your writing, your words, your use of quotes, is spot on fantastic. Thank you so much for writing this.