Happy Birthday Daughts…

Happy Birthday Daughts!

As you so aptly commented in a recent Facebook post,

“I’ll be 25 Monday.  Where did time go?”

Where did it go?

Well, I have an inkling!

It really does seem like yesterday that you were born,

but time tells us it was a quarter of a century ago.

You were a beautiful youngster,

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and are now a stunning young woman.

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A lot of growing up has happened in the meantime.

Impatient from the get go you never knew what clothes to wear,

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so you solved that problem by changing countless times a day.

We listened to fierce encounters between you and your shoes over buckling or tying them yourself.

We witnessed battles over ballet buns as you tried to tame bangs, cut too short by you.

We thrilled at the endless modifications you would make to your clothes, wearing favorite shorts on top of jeans in the winter and cutting sleeves off sweaters in the boiling summer heat.

You were independent and we joked that you were six going on 21.

You always knew what you wanted, the only problem was you wanted it NOW.

Performing became your passion from the first moment you felt a spotlight hit you on stage at the age of five.

But you weren’t at all keen on the process that led to the finished product.

You didn’t like learning choreography, marking through the blocking, practicing songs, learning lines, rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing…

You just wanted it to be SHOW TIME!

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At seventeen you were the last one at home and we spent many hours talking about your dreams and the detailed future you had laid out for yourself at the tender age of eight.

You leaned across the side table to me one afternoon and confided,

“I just want to be 25 right now.

“You do?”  I said and took a deep breath.

“Yes…I don’t want to have to go to college, take exams, find a job, travel to England to meet my prince charming, get married…” you trailed off with a look of panic in your eyes at what lay ahead.

“It won’t be so bad, ” I said, “if you take it one day at a time…”

“But it’s going to take sooo long…” you sighed,  “I just want to fall asleep and wake up and ‘Ta-Dah’ I’m there!”

Well, surprise, surprise my sweetest child…here you are!

You’re 25 today!

You’ve graduated from college, experienced what it feels like to be a star barista,

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you’ve danced on a cruise ship,

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seen most of Europe,

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and not only through a porthole!

You’ve found your place in the dance world and your Prince Charming came along just as you’d written.

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You’ve said your ‘I do’s’ in a fairy-tale wedding at Footlights in August…

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You can wake up now!!

I love you so much Daughts!

Happy Birthday!

And be present for every minute of your life,

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there’s no skipping the process…

…it’s the most important part!

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ElRay

2017-01-02 16:38:35 Reply

Oh how beautifully you put it! All those years and her dreams and actions and now, she’s there. I pray her life will be as happy as our lives have been together and she too has such a determined child – who knows what she wants!

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