Ode to ma petit Leila

Hmmm, sweet girl. You were all around me and through me this weekend. Everytime I sipped my tea or paused to feel the breeze, you wandered into my thoughts. Not so much missing you (although, of course I do) as channeling you so to speak. I spent a great deal of time on the deck yesterday and today...going through stacks of old magazines for pictures and textures and colors...recycling and purging. I grilled out and I ate cheese - cheese always makes me think of you. Whenever I am relaxed and content and in my very own time-space, I think of you.

Your beautiful smile and your vivacious attitude and your brisk-never-sauntering-walk. How you are one of those people that energized everyone in the room just by talking. Your unflappably bohemian chic taste in clothes and shoes. Everytime I take a bath I think of you in your little apartment (which you don't live in anymore). But more, I feel your energy myself. I remember all the great fun we've had and the places we've been - The Heartland which was once Garett's but will now forever represent either your arrival or departure; the beach at Ligia and Mike's with or without a dog in tow; the Annex sipping martinis, Mr. Crum's skipping class; Suite Sixteen making martinis and emptying mine and Kimber's closet for something to wear; Halloween and Wednesday Addams; mermaids; sunburns; and the no-nonsense way you clarify the problem and then systematically solve it.

I have come to realize that although I can be very solitary...and enjoy being with myself, a defining part of my make-up is my relationship with my friends. You have never let me down and this weekend, for the first time in a very long time, with you to guide and lift me up, I remembered a bit of myself. The person I was when we met reached for the surface in the last 48 hours. So, I thank you for all that you've been and all that you continue to be. Don't forget to buy batteries or drink a martini in the afternoon. Big hugs and many kisses across the big pond. Missing you....