around the sun

credit:
from my girl's Scratch profile

I remember the moment she came out and they lay her on my belly and I said, 'Is she all right?' because, you see, it seemed as though she wasn't breathing. She lay so still and was so calm it threw me. Aren't you suppose to bawl the roof off the sucker when life starts?

Now, I think it's because she had already figured a few things out. Right that moment, she was surrounded by that heart-thumping, sky-breaking-open kind of love people write poems about. She had her skin on mine. Umbilical cord still attached. Life not too curly, yet. What did she need to do these first few moments but relax?

She's still heart-stoppingly beautiful to me. She's still as full of light and joy as those first syrup-slow seconds. I get to be her mum, still. And always, too.

It's her birthday today. It's been a really, really nice day.

Happy Birthday, to one of my best friends—my beautiful, imaginative, kind, inspiring girl.