I wanted you all to know how much you mean to me

These are the words to a song from the musical Wicked. I really love this song because it expresses so much. I have a very dear friend who has had a heart ailment for nearly 20 years. A heart ailment so severe that the doctors said at best she would live 5 to 10 years with. She and I have always used humor to deal with adversity. Sometimes dark humor but it gets us through. When she told me her diagnosis I told her that she couldn't die because I would have to sing Wind Beneath my Wings and I didn't know the lyrics and I have the worst singing voice. She burst out laughing and said that she had no intentions of letting me do that to our friends and family. So go forward nearly ten years and I am telling her about my uterine cancer and she looks at me and says, "Does this mean I have to learn that damn song?" So now I am laughing. Well, neither of us have ever learned the words and neither of us can sing to save our souls so maybe that is why we have lived so long. But since then we have each found a new song that we can't memorize the lyrics to or sing acceptably but the words do match what we feel for each other and they also match how I feel about all of you here on this site. I would have recorded this but, gosh, you are my friends and I should spare you that little blessing. But know in my heart I really feel this way about all of you.

I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn and we are led
To those who help us most to grow if we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today because I knew you...
Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you I have been changed for good
It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine by being my friend...
Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a sky bird in a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you I have been changed for good
And just to clear the air I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for
But then, I guess we know there's blame to share
And none of it seems to matter anymore.
Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Like a ship blown from it's mooring by a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better
And because I knew you...
I have been changed for good...

My hope for the new year is that we all have good health, good news, and good lives, but when sadness touches us and we know that it will because that is life remember that we are loved by each other, by family and by our friends. The true measure of success is not wealth, possessions or position but by how we touched others lives. You have all touched mine deeply and I am blessed.
Stef