It starts like every other story, on any other day. The sun rolls through the clouds and up to the highest point in the sky it can manage, or what at least we think is the tallest part of the sky. The air wasn't sickly sweet with the smell of dead leaves leaving the last of themselves on the wind of whoever was passing through, no, it was bright and new for the flowers that were just waking up, the moon was a barely there icy blue ghost that was barely trying to hide behind the left over clouds from the night before. The world was just waking up again and it was keeping it's promise in giving something specifically beautiful and wonderful to itself, to the rest of us, maybe to the universe, who knew then. And like so many before, like myself and like everyone around us -- Once upon a time, there was a girl.
But before there was a girl, before the world could wake up and shake the sleep from it's eyes, there was the pale, pearl coloured thing that all the mountains, all the lakes and the grey things shuffled around in. They had no idea their hearts were covered in dust and out of tune like the piano in the corner that your uncle swears up and down that he can play, but never tries. (Which is for the best, do you remember what he sounded like the last time he tried to play Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.) The grey things had shapes, sure, but they had forgotten what they could be, what they were. It had been a very long time since they were much else, soft hazy outlines of shadows that would pass over each other, always looking but never finding, and all at once the sky opened up.
She was tall, she was as tall as the treasures that hid in the tree tops with a smile that could charm even the most suspicious of the beasts that prowled the forest floor looking for scraps that they would tug and teeth on. Her long legs strode through the deep forest, there was not a single thing under that spring-time sky that she wouldn't make friends with, that she wouldn't listen to the whole story about, that there wouldn't be some kind of song in her heart that would play just for them until the end of time. And her heart was as welcoming and as warm as a bonfire, she could hear whispers in people's sleep and weaved and wound time and places and things to make them feel that much more complete. Eventually, the grey things that lived in shadows changing their shapes to fit for a season, they felt whole. Whole in the way that they didn't need to change, squash or fold to fit the time they were in. They would be with the girl forever, however long forever might be.
There are so many things and people and places that drain the magic or the love or life out of us, and then finally meeting someone who helps replenish those things seemingly without much thought or work is, I don't know how you do it. You are an impossibility. Down to the core of you, you're beautiful inside and out. I've not met anyone as genuinely sweet without anything lurking around the edges or the shadows. You're so talented and driven and are exactly where you should be, and it's humbling and fantastic to get to watch you shimmer and radiate against even the loudest backdrop.
Demi, you truly are one of the most gorgeous people I've ever had the good fortune to meet. Your beautiful brain and huge heart, your gorgeous eyes and fucking infectious laugh. You're perfect, you know, and the world is a better place for having you in it. And as a small grey thing that got her whole life changed around, I hope your birthday was amazing but more importantly, I wish you a merry unbirthday and a happy Halloween, you deserve the whole world.
