Ella, you are such a wonderful human being!
Words can't describe. Or maybe they can attempt to. Let's see.
It's another birthday to add to your spirited journey. Your big first and last 25th
Birthday!
Here's how your dad sawed it … or recalled it. Read and take it in.
Somewhere in Winona, Minnesota, a young woman studied a thing called movement
science, which is a pretty good name for a college degree. Movement. The science of
how a body moves — and what it can become. You minored in dance because
studying how bodies move and treating injuries was not enough. You carried your
flame of desire to also be a choreographer and dancer. To flow with how it has always
felt … in your feet … your spine … your breath … your whole being.
Now you live in Harlem with your close roommates, a colored pencil and marker col-
lection, and hands that know how to find the spot where a dancer's body has been
lying to itself regarding pain. You are a Dancer Whisperer … with your own unique
approach to communication. Someone who earns a dancer's trust … slowly, through
listening, and believing the body when it says something is wrong. Through respect-
ing that every dancer carries their own history of what hurts and why. Dancers are
souls who have spent their entire lives sensing all the parts of their bodies … and they
come to you because you have a common understanding. You can translate pain into
recovery. Put athletes back together and enable them to go back to the stage. The
audience doesn't always know that the beautiful thing they're watching was also
made possible by your care.
And from that same impulse … the one that sees what is needed and moves toward it
… you lead a worship group that you built from scratch. You saw something missing
… and instead of just waiting for someone else to do it, you made it happen. That's
how our Ella has always been.
Then a young man named Matthew, who has similar interests, came into your life.
You gently wield your love out to the world, and that love finds its way back to
wherever you are.
You jog through neighborhoods and take in the raw-gritty to polished-gleaming tall
places around New York City. Because you have never been the type of person who
only likes shiny things … you also love how a cracked sidewalk sits next to a church.
How, for example, a bodega awning catches the same light as the steps in front of a
museum. You move through all of it with a full heart and active soul.
You volunteer at the Bowery Mission. Not once for a photo. Frequently. Because gen-
erosity is something you just are. This world cannot afford for Ella to not be Ella.
And during my quiet hours … I think about this, and it nearly undoes me … You sit
with your set of markers and pencils and draw words into symbols and compositions
into prayers. Lines and shapes connected, flowing together the way everything in
your life moves. New Testament excerpts transformed into a joyful celebration.
During the process, you become the tone. You channel Jesus when words become
too small, and another expression of choice is the right size for what you need to say
as song.
You are TWENTY-FIVE and know very well how to boil an egg, so to speak. Our sweet
daughter Ella, MS, ATC, CPT ( and whatever other letters you will collect moving
forward ) is healing dancers, feeding the hungry, running half marathons, leading
dance worship at a big church, creating art, and last but not least sharing a bathroom
with three gifted roomies. But here's the part that matters more than degrees. More
than the dancers you have healed, the miles you have run, and the meals you have
served. On your Sacred Journey, you pray while moving your feet and offering your
hands. You belong to everything you do so well, and it belongs to you.
You are a pastel colors unicorn and vanilla butterfly … always becoming.
Your mom and I are so proud of who you have become,
to go with who you have always been.
Happy Birthday, Ella!
Love forever and ever, your dad.
