This is For…

This birthday was amazing.

I want to take this feeling and apply it to the rest of my life (or realistically, as long as I can lol).

All weekend long, I was surrounded by love. Love was definitely the word that characterized this birthday…receiving hugs, messages, and spending time with my family and friends. The final act of love for the night which brought me to tears dealt with something else entirely.

I don’t feel comfortable sharing about other people as I am super-cautious not to invade anyone’s privacy, so I will gloss over most of the details. A few weeks ago, I made a new friend…several at once, as a matter of fact, as I was blessed to be a part of an amazing program. That weekend was great, and one of the highlights for me was definitely brainstorming with that new friend, who has the gift of making everyone feel special and valued.

Last night, I got an email saying that this friend had just lost someone close unexpectedly. What really touched me was that back to back, members of that program responded to the email chain, with a genuine love and concern for the person, trying to brainstorm how we can support as a group. Six weeks ago, many of us were strangers…but now we’re a family.

As someone who has grown up feeling largely isolated (with the exception of my family and closest friends), I have had issues connecting with and trusting people whom I don’t know. These feelings have continued throughout my adult life and still show up fairly regularly. But over the past five years, I have met some amazing people from around the world…people who have trusted me, who have been vulnerable with me, who have loved me…this has been a great present of love that I can’t help but reciprocate.

I am keeping my friend lifted up today, and plan to reach out in a couple of days with condolences.

I wrote and recorded this song when I was a broke college student lol. It’s not very good, but it is special to me, as I wrote it for my grandma. Sharing.