Dear Jaime,

I'm sitting here typing this love note, but I will not finish the post until tomorrow or later.  I must soon get ready for an evening out with you.  Tonight you are not eleven years my junior.  Tonight you are, quite simply, my friend...and I am yours, just as I have been for the past two decades.  I am writing this to you, for you, because I anticipate there are words I will forget to say in your presence.  I want to somehow capture the message so you can keep it with you, so that you will not forget.  I have loved people that you have loved, and detested others on your behalf.  I have always felt a sense of regret that I did not do more.  I think you know what I mean. Just please believe what I know to be true:  You are beautiful and strong, and you are worth so much more than the hand you've been dealt.  Keep putting one foot in front of the other and someday, someday, you'll be far away from this place of today.  I love you, Jaime.  You know I do.  Great things await.  I have no doubt.  I will always be your cheerleader.  Always.

It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not. ~Author Unknown

If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. ~Vincent Van Gogh

If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. ~Author Unknown

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
~Edmund Hillary

Always act like you're wearing an invisible crown. ~Author Unknown

It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.
~Sally Kempton, Esquire, 1970

Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic. ~Jean Sibelius

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles," 1992

With so much love and affection, my friend. ~S.