The Idea-smithy

Dear P,

Shall I begin this by just wishing you a very happy birthday? Yes. I mean every word of it.

Many happy returns of the day.

I really hope that all the goodness that is you, which you have poured into the world in the form of your love, your affection, your emotions, your intensity, your mistakes, your worries, your expression and your personality…I hope they all return to you manifold and in the brightest, most positive way possible.

I hope that the people you have loved (and I know you’ve never loved anyone or anything, any way except passionately), realize some day the extent of what they’ve been priveleged to have.

I hope someday, that those few who reciprocated with equal intensity look back with as much serenity at the ashes and feel complete for having created those flames with you.

I hope that your childhood friends never forget the young girl who surpassed her peers but was never too busy to help any of them up. And that your teachers look back at you with as much pride in their own development of you as in your progress. Because in your sucess, lies their contribution and their growth as well.

I hope your family never forgets how wonderfully they’ve lived, to have been a part of and added to your life. And that this bird needs her wings as much as she needs her nest. When they realise, I hope they also remember that you won’t need to come back because you’ll carry them with you wherever you go.

My dear, dear friend, I hope I never become so content or proud of myself that I imagine that I stop needing you. Or telling you that.

I probably don’t tell you that enough. But you know it already. That’s just part of what makes you my best friend.

I won’t be wishing you great things for the future because I can see they already are yours to have. But I do wish you past stays with you glittering, soothing and precious to you always.

When I thought about what I could give you, I realised there really was nothing, no single thing that I could add to your life, nothing I could give you that you didn’t already have, or someone else already get you a better version of. But I’ve never had anything especially different to give you. And yet, I’m the one you call best friend. So my dear lady, today, all I have to give you is my thanks for being who you are.

Happy birthday to my best friend.