Debbie Young: Sikhing and finding

What words can possibly ever be enough. We first met on summer camp aged 10 and 12, where she claims she was incredibly insensitive (tennis ball and jumper, nuff said!) though that's not a memory of mine! We really became friends 5 years ago when Reform Students reunited us, and we just clicked together. She used to say I drove her mad because she so loved to disagree with people, but we always seemed to see eye to eye. We often understood each other without having to even say it. It's rare for us to find those kind of connections, though I suspect Esty had them with many people. She was beautiful from every angle, inside and out, even first thing in the morning when she was impossible to wake up and her hair took over. I wish she had listened when we told her. But she wasn't having any of it. She always knew just what to say, or do. At my grandfathers shiva, she didn't ask what she could do to help, she just did it. She elected herself tea server, and ensured everyone had a cuppa despite the numbers. In dialogue, too, she always knew how to hear the other, and how to make herself heard, in a language the other could absorb. Her ways with words often left me smiling, from the insane sms's to the word plays, the cards covered on every corner in tiny purple writing, the nicknames and poetry. Angela offered severe violence if I didn't put this poem up on the blog, but I also offer it as a beautiful memento of a beautiful life, which has left a gaping hole. Ester wrote this after one of the intefaith events we attended together:

Sikhing and finding,
Paths Chris-chrossing,
As you and I slam
Through Sala'am slalams,
Ohming and ahhing,
Yinging and Yanging,
Till we meet aJain -
Dunno where or Zen;
Pray we B oK...
So, Bahai'i-Bahai'i,
And aJew aJew.

Bye Esty, I am less without you, and the world is so much poorer without you, so we will all have to love the world, and each other, that little bit more, to make up for it.
love you always. DD