‘This is my sister’, I proudly showed you off to the excited teenage girls. You were my world, every chance I got to brag about you; I the peahen, you the majestic feathers; your round chubby cheeks, and a head full of hair melted the iceboxes that replaced the hearts of many that laid their eyes on you.
Our shared love of music peaking at the nostalgia of you telling a woman her ‘belly nuh bang’, during our first dancehall era and your obsession with Phill collins as a child.
Seeing you today as not a girl, not yet a woman - you are far too young to get it, its okay- who has and continues to accomplish astonishing things fires my heart and spirit in ways that are incomparable. My instinct is to erect watch towers around you, annihilating without question anything that moves - not that I would do that.
Loving you because you are my sister I recently discovered was lazy - sometimes liking you is a challenge -. Choosing to love you as my friend, has been like trying an internet hack for shits and giggles, it working and the realisation of the amount of time, and effort you will be saving without much change. Like seeing something you have looked at your whole life for the first time.
Happy belated Birthday; growing alongside, learning and discovering this beautiful, wonderful being you are growing into, is a privilege and blessing I do not take lightly nor for granted.
I am so proud of you.
Rest assured I can annihilate any threats perceived or otherwise.
May you know only a love that is regenerative, affirming, and capable of holding you in all the seasons of your life; may you have the courage to walk away from that which does not make your heart sing and your eyes twinkle brighter than the night sky on a clear summer evening. May good health, peace of mind, prosperity and creativity know you as intimately as bees know the flowers on which to suckle. May good fortune follow you the way ducklings follow momma duck. May you never forget the love of you which you are from and the lengths this love has carried you and continues to do so.
