Oh, Emily! My wonderful friend, Em, Em, Emily. Today is your birthday. Remember how you told me “it’s no big deal” when I asked you what I could do to make your day WONDERFUL. But I just kept asking you anyway (you know what they call that, right? – annoying!)

Well, you are on an air plane, flying back to New Jersey – having spent your weekend helping your sister who just had a wee babe and I am thinking of you. Of what a wonderful human being you are,  of the millions of times you have saved my bacon, of all the laughs we’ve shared, of how you’ve listened to me no matter what it is I needed to say, of the times we’ve spent working ourselves to the bone at the Cannery (we need to go back – it’s been a year!) and the list goes on…

Here is the thing – Emily is what I consider to be my “daily bread”. Let me explain: once as I was reading through the Lord’s prayer, and was thinking about the phrase, “give us this day, our daily bread” – I thought about that plea. About what that plea means for me personally. About how we need to petition God for help on an moment to moment basis.  As I thought about what daily bread is to me, I realized that for me, it is friends.  I love people and I really love the people who love me back – mis amigos! (I know, isn’t that terribly noble and heroic of me!) And you know how every once and a while you so get lucky, that it just so happens that the person you adore lives a three minute drive away — all of the sudden that person has become your daily bread. Emily is the kind of person where, if a few days go by and I haven’t seen her face or heard her laugh, I start to feel hungry. Soul hungry. Like I need some bread — and fast!

Here is why I feel hungry if I don’t get enough Emily:

Emily is one of the most thoughtful people I know. I feel like she is always looking out for me. True story: One morning she and I were talking on the phone. She mentioned how she puts “blue ice” in her kid’s lunch boxes.   I’d never heard of it, but she swore  that it kept her kids lunches cold. “Ooh!” I said, “I’ll have to try and find me one.” A few hours later she shows up at my house with some “blue ice”! Now every time I put Millie’s lunch together I think of my pal, Em.

She is organized, her life is in beautiful order – just go to her house. I love it when I go over and she says, “This place is such a mess!” and there are a few pop corn kernels on the floor from 15 minutes ago when her son was watching TV with a bowl of pop corn in his lap. All I am saying is I have never gone over there and seen a mess yet. Once I hung out at her house while her boy’s were all asleep in their beds and she and Mike went out. It was so nice just to sit in her house. It was in perfect order. It felt so cozy. Not only does she keep a beautiful home, she fills it with love.

She is a work horse. She is a tiny slender little thing – but the woman packs a punch. She can do anything! You give her a task and she is ON IT. I served with her in the primary for two beautiful years – and man, she was awesome. She is an absolute dream to work with – she always does her best, she does it on time and you can depend on her 100 %. I also know she has a testimony. I have heard her bare it multiple times to the primary kids.

Her capacity to do is NUTS – she always seems to be having people over for dinner, or hosting multiple play dates, getting the carpets cleaned, planting flowers, getting someone to a dentist appointment, helping out her neighbors. She just never ceases to amaze me. She always knows what is going on. How long it will last and what time it is over. I always call her whenever I need to find out the details. She reads the fine print & then she REMEMBERS what she read.

Her heart is so kind. If I am frustrated or hurting I know I can talk to her about it, and she will listen to me and then she will do whatever is in her power to help me. This might sound odd, but if you knew Emily you would understand perfectly what I am going to tell you about – Emily has this very distinct way of saying, “Oh, CRAP!” when things have gone horribly wrong. Sometimes, when I am telling her my troubles, I just wait for her to say it – because it is so her and the minute I hear the phrase I feel like she gets the gravity of the situation and she is totally, unequivocally on my side.

She is so much fun to be with. I know if Emily is going to be somewhere – there will be laughs and it will be F U N.

She is the mother of three handsome, spirited, ENERGETIC boys. One time I offered to pick them up from school and in one instant I had a whole new level of respect for her. I have two little girls who cling to me and stay by my side every moment. Her boys were independent, darting around, talking with friends, throwing their back packs down, and running in three different directions. Just to get them from the playground to the car took all the energy I could muster. I thought to myself, “Em wrangles these three dynamos every single day.” It is a huge job and she does it beautifully –  and she doesn’t just corral them – she runs them to soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball, football, wrestling and “Yum Yum cooking class” (lest you think that these little men are ONLY sporty! and, yes,  that is seriously the name of the cooking class!)

I also happen to think Emily is a total BABE! She has got a killer figure. I swear that sometimes she looks like  teenager!!   One morning I was working out with her at the YMCA and I looked over at her running three times faster than I was, her cheeks flushed, hair pulled back, no make up — she was BEAUTIFUL! And I though, “I think I am working out with the cutest person in this whole gym.” Her husband Mike must want to congratulate himself ever stink’n day – when he considers what a babe he married.

I love her.

Em, please send me your mom’s info so that I can thank her for giving you life.

You make my life so happy and so good.

H A P P Y  B I R T H D A Y!!!

O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the doting
fingers of
prurient philosophers
pinched
and
poked
thee
has the naughty thumb
of science
prodded
thy
beauty

how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and
buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
(but
true
to the incomparable
couch of death
thy rhythmic lover

thou answerest
them only with
spring)

Spring time always makes me want to read E.E. Cummings. So here’s a little Edward Estlin on me, my friends.

This morning when I met my pal Emily to go running she had a few extra things that she had to do in doors, while I was waiting for her I noticed a gorgeous tree in her yard. It was radiating happiness. I walked over to it so that I could enjoy it more fully.  I stood amidst some of it’s low lying branches to feel it’s embrace. The branches were heavy with  white buds that were tipped with pink — just waiting to burst open. I drank  in the spirit of that beautiful tree and told it I thought it was doing a great job. I said a prayer of gratitude for the lovely morning.  My tet a tet with a tree lasted maybe two minutes but it filled me with an ocean worth of happiness. (And if you’re wondering I, like the Native American’s, believe that all living things have spirits – including my friend’s tree – judge me if you feel so inclined, but try it and you’ll see! Those three hugger peeps are on to something!)

Thank you for Spring, Heavenly Father! I do love it!  Oh, and for sending inspiration to the heart of a poet, who in turn, helps give voice to the feelings of wonder in our hearts.

And thank you Jan for capturing it on film. oxoxo!