Feeling pretty sappy tonight and it’s late and I’m tired so instead of posting a client session, I’m going to talk a bit about friendship.  Tonight I had dinner with a friend that I’ve known for, well, since I was 19.  And that makes it a long time, because, well, I’m about to be 37.  We met over spring break my freshman year when I traveled to Boulder, Colorado to visit my best friend who went to school there.  The friend I had dinner with tonight – she just so happened to be going to school in Boulder, but was from Florida and was transferring to UF that summer.  When she got into town, she called, we hung out, became friends, and eventually she became one of my roommates.  I introduced her to her now-husband, a friend of mine from high school, we spent hours hanging out and talking, going out dancing and acting like, you guessed it, college kids.  We both have a love for travel and exploring and both studied abroad, me in Florence, she in Paris.  After graduating from undergrad, we both traveled a bit and we met up in Amsterdam, where we shared a hostel room with a lady who ate snacks out of a plastic grocery bag in the pitch-black dark of the night.  It was loud, it was random, and to this day, that memory leads to uncontrolled laughing out loud.  Then there was her wedding, which I was honored to be a bridesmaid, and then my wedding, which she did me the honor of reading a passage (and later she confronted me as to why she wasn’t a bridesmaid, lol).  And then there were kids, and moves, and more kids, and visits, and a move back, and working, and staying home, and career change, and girls nights out, and a move away, and a myriad of other things . . .

Over the years we have been close, we have been distant, and we have been close again.  In fact, I think there was a year or two in there when we barely talked.  But, the universe knows what it’s doing and kept us together.  She and I are cut from the same cloth and we will forever be connected in some way, even if it’s with the tiniest of strings, never fully separating, knowing we will come back together when the stars align, when we are drawn to needing it.

The natural ebb and flow of true friendship is reassuring, comforting.

She now lives across the country and I feel closer to her than I have in a long time.  During dinner tonight, over cocktails and yummy food, we sat pondering religion and energy and science and motherhood and laughing at the craziness of life.  Because I can do that with her and not apologize for wanting to talk about “what it all means.”  She gets me and I get her.

And I really needed that tonight.  And I think she needed it too.  There are few things more comforting for the soul than judgment-free open and honest conversation with someone you love.

When I left, I felt rejuvenated, happy, calm, peaceful, and maybe even a little giddy.

Giddy just like Arden and her cousin, Finnley, in this image taken on Christmas Day.  Giddy like 2 year olds holding hands and jumping up and down.  Yep, this is how it looks on the inside when two grown, adult women, get together and talk, share, connect, and ponder life.  Giddy with positive energy, filled to the brim and flowing over, radiating forth.  Love you, friend. xo