Forever? Even longer...

Family without blood ties. People you trust with everything and no matter what happens, where you go, live or how much time passes between conversations. They are still your family. They've seen your best and worst; clutzy moments, morning hair, language blunders and 3am phone calls.

But oh the laughter, the memories this family holds. Like a silk thread of hope on a dewy morning. Beautiful beyond description. It's the best and worst the acceptance that life will happen, you may never all be around one table again. But the beauty of the time you had outweighs the sadness of the realization, the moment's passed from a vivid reality to a whisper in a daydream.

“We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?' asked Piglet.
Even longer,' Pooh answered.”

A.A. Milne, Winnie the pooh

Kindred spirits...

I’ve always been looking to find kindred spirits to share my life with ever since reading Anne of Green Gables as a 14 year old. But I have to admit that eventhough I'm always looking to find kindred spirits I have this nagging fear of what if. What if my kindred spirits... don't like me? What if, because of my flaws - my shyness, self-consciousness, uninteresting-ness - a potentially wonderful friendship falls flat on the floor?

Sometimes that fear can be personified in me trying-too-hard. Unfortunately my trying often presents a wall; a certain coldness, a front that stalls a real, foundation upon which to build a genuine, heartfelt, rewarding friendship.

I recently read a quote by photographer Cecil Beaton, recalling his first meeting with Audrey Hepburn 1954:

“...without any of the preliminaries I felt that she cut through to a basic understanding that makes people friends. Nothing had to be explained: we liked one another. A chord had been stuck and I knew that, next time we met, we would continue straight from here with no recapitulation of formalities. This was a unique occasion.”

Cecil reminded me that a blossoming friendship is not dependent upon making oneself seem attractive to others. It is about being warm and accepting, and welcoming those who cross our paths with open arms. Shedding layers, rather than donning them. Because it's the not trying - the effortlessness - that really makes some friendship's unique.

"Your heart and my heart

are very, very old friends."

— Hafiz