Happy Birthday Suzie!

Today is my friend's birthday. She's the one in the photo "kissing" the giant Shrek I painted for a party they were having when they lived in Iowa and their girls were wee ones. The photo has nothing to do with her birthday, really. But it has everything to do with it.

Today is one of only a few May 20ths since Suzie and I have been friends that I have worked.  I don't think she even knows that I still hold it as "tradition" to take her birthday off and play.

This photo...it brings back some great memories. Layers upon layers of them. 

It reminds me that she is one of the people who could get me to believe that I could do something like this giant Shrek painting and then I'd prove it to myself by doing it. 

She is the only person who could teach me to ski and have me enjoy falling on my back side all day long in the freezing cold. 

She the person who talked me into...hey, she talked me into a number of things that turned out to be my favorite things about teaching. Directing theater. Teaching 9th grade Bible. Hmmm. 

She introduced me to Fredrick Buechner's books and Nanci Griffth's songs. (I'm listening to Late Night Grande Hotel as I type, in fact.) 

So, we live a thousand miles apart and our lives are spinning in different directions these days -- but when I get the chance to slip through the back door and sit in Suzie's kitchen for a few hours on a Saturday, it's like it's MY birthday, but better. 

Happy birthday, friend!