The year I turned 25, Bethany gave me a giant bowl of fresh red raspberries for my birthday. For someone born in snow, it was the ultimate luxury. Nevermind the fact that it was an imaginary bowl of raspberries; when she gave it to me over the dinner table at the Laird House with ripe and juicy descriptions, encouraging me to eat them all at once, no don’t freeze them for later, I could feel their weight in my cupped hands, and taste indelible summer crushed between my tongue and the roof of my mouth. In fact, I’ve eaten them again every birthday since!
At the time, B introduced the tradition as something African—Sudanese maybe? there were quite a few tall, strapping, Lost Boys reasons to have Sudan on your mind at the Laird House—though I’ve never been able to find mention of giving birthday wish presents anywhere since.
Sudan or no Sudan, African tradition or not, Nannou and I have made it ours and kept it alive these past years. This year she gave me:
“a luxurious swim in Waimanalo Bay in the summertime when the water is warm and blueblueblue. There would be no jetlag, and travel would be an instantaneous and free thing. You see, you'd have wormhole portals that were powered by a bicycle, and as your birthday present I'd ride the bike to power it so you could get here. And, you'd have a super chic bathing suit that made you feel like a million bucks. And then we'd all (everyone would be here of course with free instantaneous travel) go eat Indian food at Maharani and then have a second course down the street eating Thai food at Chiang Mai. And maybe take a hike in between.”
Did you hear that!?! She’d even ride the wormhole bike for me. Baby sister, boy howdy, I DO feel like a million bucks!
So here’s my shameless birthday request: would you leave me a birthday wish in my comments? If you don’t know me outside of blogdom, don’t be shy: just take a swing at it. I’m not picky about presents. ☺ It would totally make my day. Just for fun. (Am stopping now before you can call this begging.)
(photo by Robby Garbett via here.)
11 comments:
Joh -
I wish you a birthday dinner full of fried wonderfulness (with some kind of roasted garlic item in there somewhere as well). That you would be able to enjoy every warm, salty, crispy, tasty bite without the normal gut-ache that would be sure to follow such a feast. I wish you a bowl of fresh-picked apricot halves from that great tree on BYU Campus for dessert. And a walk by Utah Lake with the birds flying in at sunset to end off your Happy Day.
Happy Happy Birthday, Joh!! You are such a great person you deserve a wonderful birthday, and an even better year to come!
Love,
Liz
Happy Happy Birthday Hoj!
I wish you a pair of skis and a foot and a half of fresh soft snow to ski in. I wish you warm clothes, and boots that fit right, and poles the right height. I wish you a well cut trail and a bar of Swedish chocolate to eat halfway through your jaunt. The sun is sparkling through the pine trees, and ahead is a bright light. As you push your way through to the light you are met by the glorious wash of winter sun reflecting off the snow covered lake. Of course it is well frozen - 2 feet at least because you heard the lake monster singing it into its winter rest last night as you lay awake anticipating this moment. The bright light makes your eyes water and your nose tickle so you sneeze. But the sun is warm and your body is alive from the movement. You open your jacket and unwrap your scarf and let your face and neck make good fresh vitamin d. You unclip your boots from the skis and flop sideways into an ungraceful snow angel listening to the sound of the snow and the animals waking up in it. The chickadees and cardinals are chattering to each other in the trees, and with your head on the ground you can hear the quiet shuffling of small animals who tunnel under the snow all winter, safe from the prying eye and ripping claw of the owl that is sleeping in that big tree over there. Over there, across the lake is a spot where you can sit and sip orange zinger tea and eat your lunch of grilled chicken and cheese on rye bread, with good crisp pickles on the side.
I love you and love your day! I have to go and dress kids to go out in our fresh snow for lunch time recess. I will be dreaming my wish for you for the rest of the day.
xoxoxo
h
i'd ride that bike anytime for you mo!
I wished you back to the lake as well: family wood party, with intermittent breaks to swill icy-thin-sweet maple sap from the buckets (only a few months early) and steam slowly from our exertions in the winter sun. I've wished a big log lean-to with a woodstove inside, for all of the us+1-generational-cousins to play and warm together in, stepping out occasionally for rides from Aunties and Uncles on eccentric old Skidoos. There's also an evening skating party (smooth bare ice) with torches and warming barrels out on the lake, all around and across the bay. Your Lilongwe branch is there too, and they're teaching us Malawian skating and/or birthday songs, that well out into the winter woods. :) Froeliche Geburtstag! Love you!
Sorry about the deleted comment...it was an accident! I wish you everything that makes you happy! I don't know you personally, so that is as good as it gets!
happy birthday, dear--what a fun party. its like evening at the author's table. here's another wish for your party. dad and i are there, you and your family are there too, and all happy, and you are showing us stuff. you show us your house, and introduce your staff to us. we like them and tell them how grateful we are that they protect you and help you. then you take us to a market and show us what food to buy and we like it so much. you explain culture to us and we understand. cowry and duke and coco are there too and they have fun. then we sing down a well and it blends our voices and we all sound fantastic.
thank you for the great tour and the fun visit. i love you. mum
hey Joh, I just did a birthday energy session on you. In some people's minds, thats as good as pretend, in others, as real as wishes...love you lots!Jeanne
Dear Birthday girl Johanna,
I have enjoyed your blog since reading about it/your family in the Idaho State Journal. Your service, adventures, and new friendships are very interesting, thought provoking and inspiring so in an attempt to pay back I will send you some Idaho-flavored birthday gifts!
I wish you warm outerwear and fast and fun sledding at Bartz Field with your lovely little family and your friends.
I wish you whole nights of peaceful sleep. I wish you snowshoe hikes near Scout Mountain complete with lots of hot chocolate and marshmallows after. I wish you a dream of sunshine on brilliant white snow(my personal favorite, makes my heart sing!) I wish you campfires and s'mores.
I wish you a good book,long couch and a blanket to keep you cozy on a long winter's night. I wish you summer wildflowers on mountainsides and little creeks singing to you. I wish you the lovely view from the top of Mount Kinport. I wish you picnics on City Creek and a fun explore on it's trails.I love all of these things and many more in the outdoor beauty of Pocatello.
But most of all I wish for you what you have: that incredible feeling of warmth, joy, and exhilaration when your precious babies are tucked in safely and sleeping soundly in bed and all seems absolutely right with the world.
Hugs,
Jan
Dear birthday girl, I wish you exhaustion. Not sickly fatigue, and not damaging stress, but the sort of healthy exhaustion that comes from using your muscles fully and correctly, the kind that begs a little recovery time afterward and then rewards you with added capacity and strength. This is how I wish you to laugh—tearsstreamingdoubledoverstomachache. To dance and play—till you're wobbly. To work—till your job is done or till you can do no more and you can sleep with deep ease. To love—till you feel like shouting or silently crying your thanks in prayer. Deliberate, delicious, utter, wear-you-out, build-you-up life. I know this is within your scope.
Also, I wish you a trip to Portland for the best meal on the planet at Riyadh's Lebanese Restaurant, a long meditative ramble (and a second pass with a knowledgeable guide) through the Japanese Gardens and up the Steps of Enlightenment, and for a walk in the hills in a moody rain. (I am your companion, naturally. We'll make it an all-family affair.) Then we'll slip up to Astoria to visit a nautical museum, head to the kite-flying festival on a beach in lower Washington. We'll rent a lighthouse keeper's home for a weekend, the whole noisy Tribe, and we'll stay up late eating and laughing and playing, and then at midnight we'll walk out into the strong winds and listen to the ocean. When we're through there, we'll meander down the Oregon coast, stopping for bad chowder and whale-watching, and we'll laugh at sea lions, and we'll visit the Devil's Buttern Churn, where we will almost slip over the edge of danger recording the incredible sound of it with our $7000 binaural microphones and excellent recording equipment. Then we'll se up shop in Seaside, during a busy art walk (where Mum will be exhibiting her work, and selling it hand over fist), and while eating the fabulous local burgers we'll ask people to tell us their stories, we'll play our guitars (and leave out a can?), and we'll come home and make a podcast. We'll drive a little farther south, walk into the whipping wind along the coast and get sand-burns, buy patchouli and frankincense and gobs of colorful jewelry from a Danish woman's funky gypsy shop, and then we'll go to this out of the way place I know for a delicious lunch of perfect brown sticky rice, veggies, and fish, and we'll finish us with Russian Creme so good it will literally make you weep right into your dessert. A dessert fit for a Buchert woman.
And I'm just getting warmed up!
I love you.
Geo
(Word verification: bookeri)
I LOVE the idea of birthday wishes... here is mine for you.
I wish you the most beautiful sunrise, as the dust over the fence, worked up by happily plodding feet headed to the market, rises and glows, almost a mist, shrouding the distance in a twisting, twining sheen... your own fantasy land. I wish you the kind of morning where you wake up, happy and content, to the silence before anyone else is awake; your little family gathered in a sleeping bunch on the bed, limbs tangled in a love knot- their lips turned up in soft smiles as they dream.
I wish you a breakfast of fresh, perfectly ripe mangoes and cold, clear ice water. I wish you a day of playing in the yard with your family; soft dirt washing over your bare toes as you run to hide behind an ancient tree while Scout loudly counts, eyes covered with sticky little hands, taking a peek through her tiny fingers every now and then to keep track of the direction your dust trail leads in the perfect summer sun.
I wish you a turn on the tire swing... a soft breeze caressing your skin and sifting through your hair, and even with your eyes closed, you can still see the shadows of the leaves passing by as you fly through the sweet air.
I wish you a warm, messy finger-food family dinner on the front porch as the sun sets, lighting the sky on fire with brilliant oranges and reds. I wish you a tall glass of sweet strawberry lemonade on the porch as you gaze over the land lit now only by the moon's bright beams... the kids snuggled and sleeping soundly in the bed... and a kiss so sweet and passionate it sparks all the memories and feelings of your perfectly imperfect love. I wish you a peaceful drift into sleep, your heart filled with grattitude and joy for your family and your life.
Happy birthday!!!
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