Awe.

I have a friend with who I feel a kinship and share a platonic, mutually respectful, but difficult-to-explain bond that has developed over a short period of time that we know each other.

She is going through a difficult time in her life. So difficult that people who think they know her will be shocked if they were told how tough the going is for her at present, part emotionally, part financially, and part, even existentially. Unfortunately, the entire extent of help I can provide is simply to be a patient listener, for I am unable to do anything else. I wish I could. But I am not capable of offering the kind of help she needs at the moment. She is, in a way, on her own. Sadly. For someone whose life is otherwise full of friends & family, social connects & connections, and poetry & art.

But this post is not about her troubles. This post is about what she does and how she conducts herself & her life under such pressure. This post is about her kindness & generosity, her fortitude & grace, and her vivaciousness & never-say-die attitude towards life.

Her social media feed is full of joy & laughter, highlighting social and political issues, rallying around her friends to help the weak and needy, and pride for her family & gratitude for her life.

She has been the most reticent to ask for help from her friends and acquaintances, the very same people who she keeps seeking, nay demanding, help from, never for herself but always for others: for a sick lady here, a destitute family there, an activist jailed somewhere, an NGO starved of resources, a child in need of books, a house in need of repairs. She is the lady that carries the torch of humanity within her and her life, shining bright in these dark times.

I am proud of her. And if her friends knew a sliver of her real life, they’d be too. Justly so.

To me, she is a rockstar. I could not be a tenth of her if I tried. How she manages to even function, leave alone thrive as she is doing, is nothing short of a miracle. I can only watch in awe. And applaud from the sidelines.

You go, girl! You know who you are. You’re slaying it.

And the world is a better place with you in it.

Video from Canva.