The Most Beautiful Thing I have Ever Seen!

There are many things in this life that make all the other crappy parts worth living through.  Love, beauty, kindness and friendship top the list.

There few people who embody all these things.   One of them is my childhood best friend.

We met when we were still infants.  As a result we have known each other longer than we have known our own little sisters.

My dad liked to say that did everything together, first.  We had our first conversations together- even when our words were little more than babbles.  We went to school together, played sports, had sleepovers, got in trouble, explored our forest and beyond.

The first time we were ever apart was when she left for college after high school (ironically enough she went to Emerson in Boston.)  Now we have switched places and it is I who live in the North East and she who lives back in our hometown.

It is this distance that resulted in me being absent for the birth of her first child, on the 8th of April.

Hours after her birth I had the amazing fortune to hold a little electronic device that allowed me to see and hear my first love and her new blessing in real time.

I heard the little one’s mild fussing and listened as my friend recounted the birth.  True to form, this story was told in the “no big deal” way that she tells every story.

It was a home birth and from most accounts- she labored without much of the normal anxiety and stress that so often seems to surround birth now a days.    The labor went so quickly that the midwife hardly walked in the door before Annalivia entered this world.  Her amazing husband was there to support, coach and catch.

I have never been more happy that she has him to share her life with.  They have found a love supreme.  I cannot think of anyone more suited to the task of being her life companion and now father to their child.

I made a fool of myself (along with noises no newborn should be subjected to) crying and laughing at the amazing sight of such a blissfully happy little family celebrating the arrival of a perfect little being.

I love that child so viscerally, it is impossible to articulate.

When I saw my friend last at my dad’s memorial, I could not stop rubbing her belly (something I normally think is just weird to do to a pregnant woman) and telling her midsection how much I loved them.

My pain at not being physically present is out matched entirely by awe that such things exist in the world.   There is no room in my heart for anything other than gratefulness and love.

I have not a single doubt that they will be some of the best parents to ever raise a child.

Yep- there are some things in life that make everything else melt away leaving behind only what matters.

My best friend has become a mother!   Even though I am not there, I know my love lives in her heart.  Where it always has.

True friends do not have to be ‘there’ for each other as life makes this impossible sometimes.  A true friend never leaves, even when they are gone and far away.

Congratulations to the Hoffs and “hooray” for the beginnings of this great adventure!