Miss Holly Hibbert

So, the girl who is in every one of these pictures (not including me) is Miss Holly Hibbert. Seattle recently had to surrender Holly back to the east coast. We are all very sad about this unfortunate fact. I spent most of the last half of my summer feeling positively glum about Holly's departure to her homeland (New York). Holly was the first person I met upon my return to Seattle 4 years ago, when my life felt turned upside down and I needed a kindred spirit. I really credit her with reintroducing me to so many good things in life. 

Over the years, Holly and I were in numerous "groups" together. The top pic is West Wing (that's where we meet every 2 weeks to review our big picture life goals). The second pic is the dance group that Holly led for 3 years. Holly opened up to me my world of dance; I cannot imagine my life without my love of dance. We also partnered together to work at the homeless shelter at our church, our task being simply to pray for the women who sleep on the floor in our church basement. Holly has also been one of the crazy people who meet at my house every Wednesday at 7 a.m. to read aloud straight through the Bible (yes, we are reading it through from cover to cover, trying to experience the text as oral tradition). Holly also introduced me to Mars Hill Graduate School, a school I attended for 2 years.  This list could really just keep going...I cannot think of a more influential friend—a friend whose life has been so interwoven with mine. 

Holly taught me so much: interdependence (like how to ask your friends to take you to the airport at 5 a.m), how to dance with freedom, cook with more precision (still working on that), stop and cry when I need to cry; unabashedly delight in my own gifts; be honest about my own pain;  enter the pain of others; pray from a place more true; and love with just a bit more courage.

She is too far away and I have moments of panic when I remember the distance between Seattle and New York. But, I have been absolutely wealthy with her presence in my life, and I am happy to learn to share...I am sure her family and friends in New York are so happy to have her back. Holly, I miss you!

Rafter Boy, and Other Happenings to Report From the Dance Floor

He would later sheepishly tell me he was just trying out a dance move.

But when I initially looked up and saw Andy was upside down, swinging from the rafters, I momentarily wondered if I should help him to his feet. But I quickly decided that somehow Andy can get away with such ape-like maneuvers.

He and I, and a lovely batch of dear old high school friends, helped our friends Ryan and Sarah celebrate their nuptials this Sunday night. The dancing after the ceremony was on a boat on the Puget Sound, with the Seattle skyline glittering in the distance. I was in heaven. I twirled with abandon and felt the joy of old friendships rekindled. I did not, like Andy, take the liberty to somersault, but I felt just as high on life. And I have to say, that when I looked out onto that dance floor and saw the life stories in front of me, I realized this was not just a group of people who knew how to celebrate, but this also was a group of people who had accomplished some pretty beautiful things in the last decade. So many of these individuals are intent on bringing hope and change to this world, but they have not forgotten how to occupy a dance floor, either.

I woke up the next morning with that sweet sadness that comes when beautiful moments have too soon slipped into memories. The community and celebration of the night awakened something in me—I realized again I have gotten too serious. I need more dance parties. I need to take the time to be in touch with old friends. I need to be committed to the daily practice of living (as Andy pens it!) which means taking seriously the things I love. And I love the moments of my life when I step away from thinking, writing, laboring, planning, trying to change the world with my grandiose notions, and otherwise working hard…and I just let myself play and love and feel and twirl and be.