happy b-day

Another birthday. My kids just keep getting older. Why? How does that happen? One second you've got toddlers, next thing you know your baby girl is turning twenty-three. Eeeek.

Happy birthday, Kelly! Kelly is one of the most amazing people ever in the history of mankind. Adorable, kind, friendly, brilliant...wait, I'm just getting started. I am ridiculously blessed to have been handed such a one as her on this day all those years ago. While it's impossible to ever really quite capture in words how much your kids mean to you, this poem is something about that. I wrote it a few years back after Kelly had gone through a rough illness, gotten surgery, and finally worked her way back to full health. I am still thanking God for her recovery. And for her awesomeness.

    Boundless

As beautiful at once as

the sky. All the air, the electric air
in the world.  As happy-
so happy, like the heights of the
cosmos.  As far and full as the planets,
zippy as an endlessly spinning top,
deliciously dizzy, tipsy, giggly.
At the same time, steady – that
rhythm behind my heartbeat,
what my mind searches for at
the point between sleep and awake,
and finding it, relaxes.
Like a joy that burns through the soles
of my feet, my stomping, dancing feet.  
More than my hands could ever
hope to hold, bigger than my
little heart, heavier than my light heart
or even a mountain.
Like one clap so powerful it could
echo boundlessly forever.
Like the scent of every gardenia
distilled into one drop.
That’s it. Almost it.
How did you come to me?