hear the army

today was fabulous.

actually even that word lacks the oomph i want to describe a day when a handful talented & amazing (not to mention gorgeous and fashionable) women get together in your and your unborn child’s honor.

i returned home about 4 hours ago after a baby shower where friends prepared all sorts of treats (including, but not limited to, a diaper cake, wicked cupcakes, and tons of yummy food!) and then proceeded to bestow wonderful (and damn cute!) gift after gift upon me! from there most of us headed to see Sex & the City (just came out here) the movie and I tell you: we could have given the cast a run for their money – the heads were turning as our group of stylish women strode past.

the hostesses and i returned to gather my loot, graze the leftovers (frosting….ummmmm), and put our feet up for a bit and then i came home to marvel at how lucky i am to have these people in my life.

then, true to form, i started to feel a tinge of…guilt. “how could i possibly deserve all this? what could i ever do to repay them all?”

but – then i remembered an article i found on NPR’s “this i believe” segment (thanks for introducing this mom) by Wired magazine’s co-founder Kevin Kelly titled, “The Universe Is Conspiring to Help Us” where he says:

“Kindness is like a breath. It can be squeezed out, or drawn in. To solicit a gift from a stranger takes a certain state of openness. If you are lost or ill, this is easy, but most days you are neither, so embracing extreme generosity takes some preparation.
.
.
.
As a matter of fact, we are all at the receiving end of a huge gift simply by being alive. Yet, most of us are no good at being helpless, humble or indebted.”

He’s so right – i am no good at it – but tonight as I am still awake marveling at how the universe has conspired to help me today, thanks to my wonderful friends, I’m one step closer.

Full article here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18463814