Your body may be 15 years old today, but your brain was 15 years old like 5 years ago. You have always been ahead of your time.
You like to do shows for Lolo before bed. You like ice packs on your neck and hot water bottles on your belly. You like the Last Airbender and you like playing piano after dinner. You like taking naps and you like sleeping in. You like having the AC on in the van and you like typing on Sunday afternoons. You like having the first crack at the Epoch Times and you like having the last crack in a conversation. You like Parmesan cheese and you like salt. You like peanut butter caramel chip keto ice cream and you like gingerberry kombucha. You like being in charge and you like being left alone. You like singing and you like listening to music. You like long lists of things and you like it when a good list reaches its end. So, you're welcome.
You are beautiful, smart, funny, talented, well-worded, quick-witted, creative, and confident. You know who you are and what you are about. You are a gifted story writer and teller. You like making up characters and enjoy being in character. You are good at world building; so good, in fact, that you sometimes get so caught up in the worlds you have made up that you forget that there is a real one back here with the rest of us. Tolkien famously quipped that one could hope that Middle Earth was real and I believe you share that same sentiment about the worlds you create. If they aren't real, you wish they were. Chesterton urged us to remember how wonder filled our world was and many times the quickest path to seeing the amazing in the day to day is to create stories that must borrow their brilliance from the world that is always around us. God shows us the glory of His creation by allowing us to be sub-creators. You have taken this charge in stride. You write poems, you create worlds and draw maps of worlds, you invent people and languages, you write songs and pen lyrics. You love making much with the raw material God has provided. You see the possibility in things. This, again, is a great blessing, but it does come at the cost of sometimes being discontent with the way things are.The pleasant arbor on the way up the Hill of Difficulty was a great place to rest one's head, but as we saw with Christian, it can also be a place where one loses his head for a while. So, keep building worlds and populating them with the best characters your mind can create and with the best ideas this world has to offer, but remember to return home and hang your hat in reality with the rest of us. We miss you when you're gone, but we always look forward to having you back.
I love being your dad, Penelope. I am proud of you. I like you and I love you.
Happy birthday, Nen.
Love,
Dad
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