Happy birthday

If I counted the number of your birthdays that we’ve celebrated as friends, it would be more than the number of birthdays I admit to. So I won’t tell.

Before you came into my life, if I’d made a list of qualities belonging to the “perfect” friend for me, I wouldn’t have listed the unique traits that make you who you are. You are proof that it’s better to let friendship happen than to make it happen. You stumbled across a shy, sissy of a girl who life had taught to be too cautious, too careful, too safe. You swept into my life like a storm and taught me to run in the rain. You always made me laugh when no one else could, even during those times when you were the one pissing me off.

We went so many places we shouldn’t have gone. Did so many things we shouldn’t have done. We were wild and silly and crazy and exactly what we should have been for the time we grew up in, and I loved every minute of it, even the awful ones, and cherish the memory of every mistake, triumph, bout of laughter, and even the tears. They made us who we are.

It frustrates me at times that there are so few photos of us together. But it’s because first you, then I, would always be the one taking pictures. We have followed each other into so many interests. There are things you’re great at that I could never do, but probably more than anyone in the world, you were the one person who always, ALWAYS, encouraged my creativity, helped me find ways to express it, and were there to celebrate with me when I finally began seeing it manifest.

Whatever age we are, in my head, we are timeless. We will always be the girls talking our way backstage, out of a ticket, into an adventure, and through the forbidden parts of hospitals. We’ll be those girls making silly movies, driving on impulse to our favorite cities. We’ll always love your child together and will be the only ones who know everything about those crazy times before he came. And no matter how many times we do that most terrible of things–meet each other’s eyes in hospital rooms and at funerals–because we have lost so much–I know that we’ll be all right because we also have a lifetime of the strength that comes from being blessed with so much.

We are alike in a few ways, different in many ways, and we are forever friends. Thank you.

Happy birthday, Lynne.