Dear Almost-Birthday-Sister,

I’ve meant to send you a disc and card but have fallen into a pattern of work, sleep, work, sleep, with brief interludes of eating very quickly, in the hopes that doing so will neither take too much time from work, or boost my energy so much that sleep becomes impossible. It’s not a healthy way to live, but it’s only two more weeks. I think I can hold out that long.

I’ve thought about you all day, wishing for one of our late night IM chats, counting the moments of enlightenment and clarity you’ve helped me find, the smiles, the new experiences that are somehow related to knowing you, and the calmness wrapped in a spark of creativity that I associate with you in the chaotic place that is my mind.

Somehow, I think YOUR mind is much less chaotic. Or is chaotic in a different sense.

But differences are good, no? If we were all the same the world would be quite dreary, and there would be far less reason for art and music and words, ink and pictures and long rambling conversations that mosey along different tangents like a stream that meanders through a lush wood, along a village green, and finally bisects a beach on its way to merge with the ocean.

I hope that your day was spent surrounded by people and things who are meaningful to you, and that you smiled a lot, and enjoyed a balance of laughter and quiet reflection.

And if there was cake, that’s even better.

My almost-birthday-sister, today I salute you.
Thank you for being my friend.