Thanks, (and maybe some cheese)

This is my post to say thank you.

So as many (ok a few) of you may know last night was the Tony’s and in my “I miss New York” phase realizing how much broadway I was missing had me looking up the performances on youtube, which came to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWw53LN54Qs

Needless to say, I was in tears watching the Original Broadway Cast of Rent perform in the final Tony year before they close. (Coincidentally I just reviewed the movie for my office’s monthly magazine!) Anyways, a movie about love and life and friendship, added with homesickness, plus seeing old great friends in my new city? Well, just deal with this little thank you note to the amazing ones in my life.

Thanks to those friends who have taught me about love through seeing their relationships form and blossom, those who have taught me to love myself through loving me, and for those who share my love for life.

To those who play ball with me in the courtyard, indulge me in cartwheel lessons on a beach, for the friends who share a bottle of wine by the Hudson river and who are more than willing to steal off to spend a day in the park with a pair of kids (myself included in the definition of kids). Who talk late into the night over bottles of pope wine and share bowls of noodles. Who laugh, who tease, who tickle, who poke. Thanks to those who make silly noises on my answering machines, who live in places all over the world and show me their new homes, who rush with me to a broadway show and who indulge me in hugs in an early morning class.

It’s amazing to get to the point in life where you feel (somewhat) grownup and can look around you and feel honestly excited and proud of what people around you are doing. I can’t imagine being more thrilled by the lives surrounding me, my friends working across the country for what they are passionate about, fighting for rights and rules and justice and keeping their hearts, their minds, themselves as they go along. Who still understand the importance of play time at night and camping on the beach. To my friends creating art, creating theater, dance and written words, whose lives themselves are a creation and who inspire others. To those who follow where they know their minds lead, who inspire me with their love of their work. To my friends who enter the world with (not) reckless abandon but a strong knowing of their purpose and ability to effect change across the world.

And then there are the ones with whom I share incredible moments and conversations, who I can call in tears at 3am, who I can indulge on the meaning of human rights abroad, on going to law school, on the meaning of feminism. The friends who teach me, encourage me and make me believe in resistance, to those who help me learn the nuances of making my way through this world.

To those who share my life in China, or in New York. Who I connect with every week or every few years. To those who know the wavelengths of my heart and who follow with questions, with words, with cheers, and, most importantly, with the example that their own lives have lead.

Thank you to you all,

Love,

Lanlan