Happy Birthday to Freddy!

15 minutes left of Fred's birthday. (1hr 15mins, if you're on Central Time)

Wowzers!! Over the past two decades, he's been almost like a brother to me...ok...he's been exactly like a brother to me:) It seems like only yesterday, he was the short little squirt I was picking on in the back seat, during our family road trips. Now he's taller than me, practically a full grown man of 22, and rocks in every way imaginable. Love this guy!

If you haven't done so already, wish my "baby" bro Happy Birthday!! Don't know him? No worries. Send him warm thoughts and wishes. They'll get to him. I promise:)

In honor of the 22nd anniversary of his relationship with this life, check out this Anis Mojgani poem. It has become a mutual favorite of ours!!

Here I Am

"Will I be something?
Am I something? And the answer comes
Already am,
Always was,
and I still have time to be."
- Anis Mojgan

Thank God for Babies

A good friend gave birth to her first baby yesterday and I'm so happy for her!! I got to hold the beautiful girl only hours after she was born and it was as if the gloomy cloud that has been following me this week suddenly lifted. Seriously, it's been a crazy week, but holding this little girl completely melted my cold and stubborn heart.

Thank God for babies. Despite all of our brokenness as humans, each new child gives us an opportunity to turn it all around. It's as if, with each infant He brings into this world, God is winking at us and saying, "all is not lost. There is still hope."

I was just so inspired that I had to express it in some way...check out this new poem - hot off the presses :)

Baby Sasha Saves the World
BY Susan Baba

Just when you think he has tired of us
our ceaseless complaining
our needless lies

our insatiable appetite for all that shines
the anger we throw around so carelessly
the half-baked love we offer up with similar ease

just when you think he has tired of it all
wrung his hands of all our failures
and left us to bring about our own demise

he opens a woman's womb again
thrusts a crying and desperate newborn
into the world's waiting hands
reminds us that all is not quite lost yet
there is still hope.

Anis Thinks I'm Quite the Beauty

I'm certain that he didn't write this poem just for me, but today is my birthday, so let's just pretend!! I discovered this new piece by Anis Mojgani quite randomly, and just had to post it. It seriously made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"come closer
come into this
come closer
you are quite the beauty
if no one has ever told you that before, know that right now -
you are quite the beauty

there is joy in how your mouth dances with your teeth
your smile is a sign of how sacred your life actually is
come into it
come closer

know that something softer than us, but just as holy
placed a piece of himself within our feet"
- excerpt from "Come Closer"

See what I mean? Simply beautiful! Check out the vid below and be sure to pass it on. Everyone needs to hear these words.

sb