At my birthday dinner, Lindsay passed me gift bag. I gleefully tore away the crinkly paper to pull out a red t-shirt. I gasped. “Gryffindor Quidditch? Team Captain!?” Lindsay nodded proudly. She had just returned from a vacation in Harry Potter World.
“How did you know she was Gryffindor?” another of my birthday guests asked.
“I wrestled with it a lot, actually,” Lindsay explained. “I think you’re 50% Gryffindor, 50% Ravenclaw.”
“That’s exactly how I describe myself!” I agreed.
“So I couldn’t decide which shirt to buy, but eventually my mom told me to choose whichever house you would most want to be in. And I thought, Tricia is both smart and brave, but I think she wants to be more brave, so she would choose Gryffindor.”
My mouth fell open. “Lindsay!” I shouted. “You know me so well. That is the most correct thing anyone has ever said about me.”
Well, not quite. Several days later, the same Lindsay posted a link on my Facebook page to a blog post entitled For the Free-Spirited Females with Fiercely Sensitive Hearts. The title alone felt like a nametag, and when I read the poetic post, my heart knew: these are my people.
We are born to ride the wild winds of passion, surf the turbulent oceans of despair, and relentlessly explore the great vastness of this crazy world—until our bodies collapse in ecstatic exhaustion.
We understand deeply that life is a heartbreakingly beautiful series of goodbyes, hellos, triumphs and disappointments and we feel most alive in the midst of transformation, courageously shedding our old skin to be birthed again, raw and new.
I mean. Wow. The whole post felt like someone had reached into the deepest parts of myself, displayed them, and validated them. My deep emotionality, my transience–things I sometimes value, sometimes hate–were here given dignity and respect. I am a free-spirited female with a fiercely sensitive heart, and that is wonderful.
And Lindsay knows that. She sees my Gryffindor/Ravenclaw heart that longs for bravery, and she honors my free-wheeling sensitive soul. Part of being sensitive, I think, is an intense desire to be known, and wow. Lindsay has 100% satisfied that desire this week. I am so incredibly grateful for her friendship.
It Is Trish 