My friend Kim

I was at a pool party for adults one time, it was hot and there was music - people love that stuff. In the middle of the pool was one inflatable li-lo type device, a big clear, air filled mattress. This was popular and before long it was the scene of a near constant game of, how do you say? Queen of the hill. Whenever someone managed to climb and relax aboard the craft, they would be quickly assaulted by another aspirational relaxer and dumped back into the water. Every time I looked at the pool during the hours I was at this party, Kim was battling for the top spot on the ‘hill’. Hours.

Kim often stayed over in our spare room. This was great because she is fun, she sometimes collected our unwanted insects and spiders for a uni course and occasionally watched over our dachshunds. The night that we left the house and rushed to the hospital at 4am for a baby to arrive, Kim was already in the house to sit a vigil and feed the hounds. She even put up a welcome home sign.

One time I walked through northern Sweden with Kim for 7 days. It was summer so most of the water was bubbling, running, bouncing across the path. There were times though when large chunks of the water lay as snow and ice across the valley. Kim chose these times to express her joyful abandon by climbing on, sliding down, collecting up and hurling the ice. The most appropriate response I believe to this type of behaviour is expressed clearly in the image attached.

Whenever you are Kim and whoever you are with, I trust you are battling, watching over and expressing joy.