formerly phread: 7

For the month of November I’ve decided to post each day about a person or people who have influenced my life for good. There’s no way I could include each and every person in one month or even one year, and for that I hope you’ll forgive me. This year, especially, has brought an acute awareness of the kindness and generosity which surrounds me and my kids, so here’s one attempt at giving thanks.

7 - Lezlie

I don’t know what I’d do without this woman.

We’ve known each other for 12+ years. When we met we immediately connected over the fact that we got married on the same day (hey-oh), and our oldest daughters are only days apart in age. We’ve got two additional pairs of kids the same ages, too. Our younger kids go to school together (and they, the kids, speak Chinese while we, their moms, don’t *high-five*) so we carpool and tell each other the awesome things our kids say (what we can understand, anyway).

She’s my visiting teacher, which is great because we’re already friends (and I’m The Worst at visiting teaching, every single aspect of it), and we’ve got plenty to discuss. And she shares my love of musicals.

Lezlie is one of the hardest-working women I know, and she’s one of the never-complainingest people I know. I look at all the stuff she does and think she should be complaining way more, but she just…doesn’t. From what I understand she gets this from her dad.

She loves people and chooses kindness. She’s thoughtful and deliberate in how she organizes and serves, and appreciates beauty and stories and poetry. Pretty sure she gets this from her mom.

…Now that I’m thinking of it, many of her golden qualities are from both of her parents, and I know she misses them terribly. Her example of love and honor for parents is exquisite.

Lezlie is a lot of fun, she’s bright and she’s humble-- she and her husband, Merlin, are both just top-notch. She put up with my crappy attitude at girls camp for a lot of years (I’m sorry, by the way), and she’s constantly patient with me when I flake on things. Her quiet generosity is a consistent attribute in her family, one I admire and to which I aspire.

Thanks, Lezlie. I love you.