June 25 is the
best birthday in the year. Every six months, you get presents.
December 25
probably isn’t the worst birthday, either. Almost any day in December will do
there. Close enough to Christmas and you get lost in the holiday hoopla – not
to mention the blended birthday/Christmas prezzies that magically match the
number of your siblings’ Christmas gifts. Since you can’t actually pick your
birthday, if you’re due in December, it’s better to show up before the
Christmas crazies get out of hand.
That’s what my
buddy Nicole did. Forty (yes, 40)
years ago, she interrupted her family’s regularly scheduled holiday to make her
appearance. It was a good day for the world. Better than Christmas, though a
mere few knew it at the time.
Nicole was in
her mid-twenties when we hooked up at Trust The Process. Since then, she’s been
a distant constant in my life, teaching me about poetry and music, love and
loss, strength and vulnerability, perseverance and forgiveness, creativity,
imagination and propinquity. She’s made me laugh and she’s made me cry, putting
me in touch with my reluctant heart while thinking naught of giving her own. We
have shared ourselves in handwritten card tag, email and online, in
cross-country birthday boxes, and through our mutual hero, the Bass God
himself. She’s a joy, a wonder, a falling star and a soaring lyric. I have yet
to hug her, yet I know the warmth in her embrace. I admire her dedication to
art, to her friends and her family. She’s optimistic, hopeful, courageous,
generous and everything else that a light being brings to this existence. In
short, she’s a marvel.
Today might be
her birthday, but to me she is the gift.
Happy birthday, my sweet red hot cinnamon jellybean. With love,
I am so blessed to know you, Ru. So blessed. I have learned so much from you, my voice of reason, my propinquitious constant, I have DONE so much because of your encouragement and your kinship. You are MY gift. I expressed today, that one is only as good as the company they keep. I must be a good egg because there are people like you and Ter in my corner. I am the luckiest bean in the bowl, surrounded by love and goodness. I never take that for granted. <3
ReplyDeleteAwwwww ... GROUP HUG!!!!!
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