A Beautiful Gift From A Beautiful Friend,

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive.  ~Anäis Nin

Friendship is such a beautiful blessing that God gives us in our lives.  Someone we can share with, laugh with, and cry with.  Over the last couple of years blogging, I have had the great opportunity to meet many wonderful writers, and gain amazing friends all over the world.  Today I would like to acknowledge one of these lovely souls.  Her name is Ninot Aziz.  She lives in beautiful Malaysia, has five children, and is the author of several books, about Malaysian heritage,culture, and legacy.  Ninot is a very busy, and successfull human being, but she always makes time for her family and friends.  I first met her at my blog, always leaving beautiful and uplifting comments. This led me to her's and the rest is history.  We became true friends.  One fact that I find really intriguing is that we both started writing at the same tender age of eleven years old.  Ninot once asked me to share my story of what inspired me to first start writing, so at her request I would like to share that story now.  When I was eleven years old a lot of changes had taken place in my life.  My mother had passed away 2 years before, and my father had just remarried and my stepmother and two of her teenage sons had moved in with us.  It was both an exciting and frightening time for me.  Because of limited space, and the fact that my brother could be cantankerous, I lost my room to my stepbrothers and had to sleep on the couch in the living room.  All of my toys had been packed aways while I was gone at my grandparent's house during my father's honeymoon.  So I began finding other things to do with my time when I came back home.  I did some reading, and watched more T.V., and then one day, out of the blue, I got the idea to write a poem.  I remember sitting at my father's desk with a pen and paper, and deliberating what I would put down on that page.  I looked out the kitchen window, and saw this magnificent tree, and just started writing.  The entire piece was about our home, that tree, and what it meant to me.  It was a silly little poem, but I never have forgotten how it made me feel to have written it.  It was such a wonderful sense of accomplishment.  It is a wonderful thing in the blogging world to be able to share my writing with other like minded writers and poets.  It certainly has motivated me to write more, and I have truly enjoyed reading other peoples amazing works.  Ninot recently generously sent me across the globe her latest book, "Srikandi".  I was very touched by her beautiful gift and wanted to share the story here.  Thank you Ninot for being such a lovely friend here in the blogosphere.  I feel so blessed to have met such an amazing and accoplished poet, writer, and beautiful friend!