We Could All Learn A Thing Or Two From Birthday Sarah

Birthday Sarah in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Here I was considering myself the bee’s knees for creating the Yell to Hell, a 900+ mile hike from Yellowstone to Hell’s Canyon, while Birthday Sarah’s over here lapping the sun for a 24th time! That’s a distance of 584,000,000 miles x 24 = 14,016,000,000 miles.

And since she’s too humble to ever claim as much, allow me to say we could all learn a thing or two from her.

A Thing Or Two Learned From Birthday Sarah

A caring child can nurse a butterfly back to full health. Sarah once ran the only functioning butterfly hospital in the western hemisphere.
A child can judge a person based on one question. If offered a million dollars, would you tear off a living butterfly’s wings?
A life, no matter how small, should never be ignored. I’ve never known someone so dedicated to every life around her, whether her pet or plant, or a visiting bird or insect. Walks in the rain call for constant vigilance, lest one ignorantly step on a bathing worm. Roadkill should gross out the heart more than the stomach. And once, as a 23-year-old, Sarah revealed a lot when her go-to trait for a “terrible person” was someone who would “go around killing insects.”
Storms are for experiencing. One example: when we first started dating, a blizzard hit our little mountain town. It was a night of sideways snow, bracing windows, and winter storm warnings. Nevertheless, we strapped on our snowshoes and stomped up into the hills. Sarah kept stopping, shocked by the beauty of snow caught in her headlamp. She’d remove her glove and gawk at the “endless string of orbs” spraying off her raised palm. She was easy to fall in love with.
Beauty, no matter how small, should never be ignored. The smaller something is, the cuter it becomes. This is true even for light: some of her favorite images include glimmer and shimmer and orbs, moments gleaming with light’s delicate shattering. Last fall in Mt. Nebo’s wilderness, in the deep blue of the jet stream above us, a river of yellow Aspen leaves kept winking in and out of view. Sarah’s gaze skyward struck with a rapture usually designated for residents of New Testament paintings.
Kids movies and animated films are not the same thing. The Breadwinner, The Red Turtle, Triplets of Belleville, Loving Vincent, Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies: Disney, eat your heart out.
A watercolor can become a friend. Check out her amazing work here. To her, they become her friends.
Just one example of her lovely work.
And somehow it’s possible for one person to be a knowledgeable scientist; a skilled backpacker; a sought-after, commissioned painter; a talented, professional writer; a fantastic, published poet; an incredible, professional singer; a trained ballerina; a pianist capable of whipping out Debussy or Chopin like its chopsticks; and a coordinated chopstick user; et cetera, et cetera.