R is for Rachel (x2)

My cousin on our adventure to Central City

I woke up thinking about the two Rachel’s in my life and since I still needed an R post, I thought I’d dedicate it to them. There are many spectacular women in my life – family, friends, colleagues. And I’ve been especially fortunate to have my life touched by two Rachel’s. One is my cousin. The other is one of my best friends.

My cousin Rachel is more than a decade younger than me. I babysat her when she was a baby and we didn’t really grow up together. But we’ve connected as adults and I just can’t say how thankful I am to have her in my life. She’s full of energy and enthusiasm. She’s a beautiful person inside and out. She understands struggle and maybe because of that, she celebrates life more excitedly than most people I know. She wants to help people. I can talk to Rachel about anything and I think she knows that she can trust me with anything. I love this girl so much and she has truly made my life richer. 

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My friend Rachel and I on our adventure to Estes Park.

My friend Rachel is an incredibly talented fine art photographer and our shared support for community organizations and causes is one of the things that brought us together. It would be hard to imagine my life without her. Rachel is a million wonderful things to me. She’s my confidante, my collaborator and my co-conspirator. She’s creative and beautiful and such a pleasure to have in my life that even as I’m writing about her, I find myself smiling and missing her. I’d be happy to spend my whole life just being friends with Rachel, but she’s one of my favorite people to work on projects with so I hope we’ll always be able to work together as well.

As it turns out, I’ve learned a lot about resilience (R word alert!) from these two women. Life hasn’t always dealt them the easiest hand but what they’ve created in their lives is beautiful and important and good. They encourage me. They inspire me. I love you both so much! 

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