Heather Thompson Day - Ill See You Tomorrow: Building Relational Resilience When You Want to Quit

Ill See You Tomorrow is a profoundly human book. It poignantly describes both our vital need for human connection and all the ways we can mess it up. Yet Heather and Seth show us our missteps arent the end of the journey, and the same is true for others. In a world where separation seems like the norm and where isolation seems inevitable, Ill See You Tomorrow reminds us that something so simplehealthy relationshipis utterly essential and deeply transformative.

J EMAR T ISBY , P H D, N EW Y ORK T IMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF T HE C OLOR OF C OMPROMISE AND H OW TO F IGHT R ACISM

We were created for relationships. But too many of us dont have the relationships in our lives to build resilience for facing the realities of our world. In Ill See You Tomorrow, husband and wife Heather Thompson Day and Seth Day team up to provide tremendous help to people wanting to build relationships that will last.

E D S TETZER , W HEATON C OLLEGE

Resilience is the call in our day, to stay when it feels easier to go, and to walk towards each other when it may feel easier to leave. Ill See You Tomorrow is a guide from some of my favorite relationship experts on the power of staying together in every kind of relationship. What could grow for you when resilience is given space to flourish?

A NNIE F. D OWNS , N EW Y ORK T IMES B ESTSELLING AUTHOR OF T HAT S OUNDS F UN

Ill See You Tomorrow is a book for anyone who has ever wanted to walk away from a relationship. It equips you with the tools to navigate the relational challenges we face in our families, friendships, and community spaces. This book is full of practical advice and gripping storytelling, for navigating the thing we all need to thrivehuman connection.

S CARLETT L ONGSTREET , BLOGGER WITH I M T HAT W IFE

Ill See You Tomorrow

2022 Heather Thompson Day and Seth Day

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

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ISBN 978-0-7852-9084-1 (audiobook)

ISBN 978-0-7852-9082-7 (eBook)

ISBN 978-0-7852-9081-0 (TP)

Epub Edition July 2022 9780785290827

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022932736

Printed in the United States of America

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We dedicate this book to Tyler Adam Day.

Brother, at all costs,

Ill See You Tomorrow.

My husband, Keith, and I were a disaster waiting to happen. We were each in rational, compatible relationships when we met our junior year of college and instantly dropped those relationships like a pair of hot coals. Keith and I had exactly zero in common except a lot of baggage from childhood. Well, thats not true. We both liked to dance. Our friends tagged us the couple least likely to succeed, and, fourteen months from the day we met, our parents came just short of wearing black to our wedding, making no bones about preferring our previous love interests. Id been told Id need surgery to ever conceive a child, but maybe God knew wed need a seven-pound, three-ounce reason to second-think splitting up. Our first child arrived not quite ten months after the day we married.

Keith and I saw nothing the same way. If he said, Looks like rain today, I said, I guess I better turn the sprinkler on the flower bed. If, come Sunday morning, I said, What a beautiful day for church, he said, This is perfect fishin weather and out hed go. We drove one another nuts. About four years in and another child later, Id had enough of marriage and decided to pack a suitcase for my two daughters and me and move in with my parents in a Texas town two hours away.

Im leaving Keith, I declared to my best friend on the phone right after Keith pulled out of the driveway for work one morning.

Okay, shed said, Well, come by on your way out of town to say bye and well have a quick cup of coffee.

My best friend, three years my senior, lived five minutes from me, so it wasnt out of my way and goodness knows I was going to miss her a heap more than I was going to miss Keith. She had two little boys the same age as my girls, so after walking through the front door, we pitched our kids a bag of Goldfish crackers, sent them off to play, and sat down for coffee.

Tell me what happened, she said, so I did. Same old stuff, really. We just dont get along. Cant agree on the color of water.

She nodded and kept pouring coffee. Then she baked cookies. Then it was just about lunchtime and she had the stuff to make chicken salad, so why not? Id leave right after lunch, and the girls would nap all the way to my parents house. By the time we swallowed our chicken salad, the four kids were in front of a Disney movie and not willing to budge.

Oh, let em watch and Ill make us one more pot of coffee, my friend said.

By the time we had that last drop, it was late afternoon. Well, I said, I better get going. Keith will be home soon, and I need to throw on some supper.

Sounds good! she said. Ill see you tomorrow!

See you tomorrow!

That evening Keith asked me how my day had gone. Fine, I said but thought under my breath, I left you today, but you dont even know it.

My best friend and I did this whole routine three or four rounds in those early years, and I fell for it every time. Id leave Keith and go as far as her house. Shed fix coffee and let me talk the day away. Let me talk the anger away. Come late afternoon, Id holler at the girls, Clean up the toys and lets head to the car. Gotta go fix Dad some dinner! Best friend of my life. She lives many miles from me now but, by the time she moved, we were in the throes of middle age and I wasnt quite as inclined to leave Keith, especially with the grandkids coming. I figured Id wait another year. Every December 30 when my wedding anniversary rolls around, I send that same best friend a message that essentially says, We threeyou, Keith, and memade it another year. Heres to thirty more cups of coffee. God knows Ill likely need them. Thank you, my forever friend. I love you.