She dropped her life when she got the news my only child died, suddenly, 21 years old--she witnessed my grief, held my gaze, my hands, my head, she handled the details I could not face with the steady anchor of compassion-- always present, never in the way.
I called to tell my far away friend that my husband had terminal cancer. Instead of finding the usual words she cried with me on the phone for a long time. It was just what I needed.
The night I called my friend Alice because I wasn't sure i wouldn't die after my husband left, and she drove 45 minutes in the moonless dark to my house, to sleep in my bed with me, hold me in firm life.
On his last day of radiation, he walks into the waiting room at the cancer center and hands out bags of homemade pizzelle cookies to everyone on the staff, and then hands the last bag to me, his "radiation buddy".
An hour before my first date in 10th grade my best friend lets me practice holding her hand and tells me, "It's not THAT clammy!"
Friendship - 'Who will come to my funeral?" I bellow to the wind - and a hundred leaves fall from the gambel oak on the hillside.
In my friendship with my dearest friend, another introvert, each of us believes the other took the first step.
She dropped her life when she got the news my only child died, suddenly, 21 years old--she witnessed my grief, held my gaze, my hands, my head, she handled the details I could not face with the steady anchor of compassion-- always present, never in the way.
Friendship: I have a tall, kind friend who shows up to sit quietly in hard times and laughs the loudest when light breaks through.
As I weave thick wooly yarn through my arthritic fingers
I recall a day, 56 years ago
When we sat on the hot concrete terrace during recess (while others played)
And you taught me how to crochet.
She transformed my life 66 years ago and we are still here, wrapped in years of shared delights and sorrows.
I called to tell my far away friend that my husband had terminal cancer. Instead of finding the usual words she cried with me on the phone for a long time. It was just what I needed.
In the silence, I said to her "You know, I'm on your side even if you're wrong." She smiled, and said 'I know".
The night I called my friend Alice because I wasn't sure i wouldn't die after my husband left, and she drove 45 minutes in the moonless dark to my house, to sleep in my bed with me, hold me in firm life.
On his last day of radiation, he walks into the waiting room at the cancer center and hands out bags of homemade pizzelle cookies to everyone on the staff, and then hands the last bag to me, his "radiation buddy".
Catalyzing belonging, she offers expansive love the way no other can! My dog, my dog, my dog- I whimper- you are the anam cara?
Girls who found each other across the pool on vacation, spanning age and home-base, united by their boldness to show up in colorful mermaid tails.
I pour out my troubles, my feelings-all the good and all the bad; you return them to me wrapped in love, in kindness, and in understanding.
0h, my God. You showed up!
At the most inappropriate times, a brief glance from her can send me into raucous laughter.
(My "bestie" is the best 🥰)