happy birthday b.b.

B. is my cousin of many years. Well, actually all my years. And hers. She’s awesome. She’s the sister I never had. She calls me every week and tells me about her animals and her garden and now her new house. Things are always changing in her life. In the last year she’s lost her job, gotten married, adopted 2 cats, started her own business and now moving to a new home.

She says, “I love you” at the end of every phone conversation or visit. It took me a long time to say it back. I know that hurt her, but she understood my need for time. It’s so much easier for me to write it, to separate myself from voicing the words. I have so much to learn from her. She doesn’t compartmentalize love, she just loves. She says, “I love you” to all her friends. “Because I love them,” she says. I love her too. I love her kindness and her simpleness and how deeply she feels for other people and animals.

She so rarely complains or brings up her own worries, that if she does, she’ll call the next day to apologize. She’d so much rather hear about your problems and help you through them that I sometimes think she missed her calling as a therapist.

She’s a brilliant photographer. That’s why she started her own business, because the people deserve her talent. She can turn a simple photo of her cat into a work of art. I’ve begged her for a year to start a photo blog, but she claims laziness. I’ve even gone so far as to threaten to set it up for her. I haven’t yet. So, leave comments and let her know you want to see her work, it’s amazing.

She’s a chilled out, Grateful Dead lovin’ blond. We couldn’t be more different or more related. I adore her.

Happy Birthday B!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!