Blooms in February

Thank you all for your e-mails, donations, and prayers for Louis and his family. I wish it didn't take a crisis for us all to connect in such a way, where there is a collective barn raising, but every time I've experienced it, I am grateful and blown away by what people can create out of urgency and love. Thank you to all of you who have felt moved to respond.

It's the end of February, and while the New York winters are relatively mild, and while I enjoy a great deal of it, I realized that I am hitting that wall. I've been too inward. I want to reach out and I want the blooms of life to start showing up. I was thinking this and then it hit me: TODAY is my baby sister Lily's FIFTH birthday. If that doesn't summon up joy, which is a kind of blooming, I don't know what does!

I wish I was in California to celebrate with her, but instead I am thinking of her beautiful fiery self and her kind heart and her little swirls she draws to dot the "i" when she signs her name "Lily." Last time I saw her, we played a game where we did this funny voice and said the phrase, "Excuse me, but..." and then we'd fill it in with some sort of description about somebody. It started with me saying about our brother, Luke, "Excuse me, but name's Luke and have you seen my teeth?" Lily said my favorite. She said, "Excuse me, but I think you smell like CHICKEN." Where the heck that came from, I have NO IDEA.

I am wishing her lots of cake and ice cream and time with animals that she can pet and hold--which is her favorite thing in the whole world. I am also wishing her lots of singing over candles and laughter and most of all, I wish her love. Lots and lots of it.