A Friend

“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”

~William Shakespeare

Yes, Be My Friend

By my own admission, I’m quite the introvert.  I haven’t always made a lot of effort to make new friends.  Most of my friends from college were from the soccer team, and not necessarily people I ever spent time with outside soccer.  But it just happened, that by the time I was done with my four years there, I’d spent enough time with them that I considered them friends.  They became friends by default.  (That’s not to say they aren’t important to me, even now, years later.)

But I have made way more of a conscious effort to invest in friendships the last year or two since I moved here.  My best friend told me a couple months ago that she heard somewhere that 20% of all the people we meet, we immediately really like.  Then there’s another 20% that we immediately really don’t like.  Then 60% of all the people we meet, we are indifferent about.

There are a few people who I’ve met this year, who I know are in my top 20%.  People that as soon as I spoke to them, I knew I liked them.  Like, my friend’s old roommate (and that friend).  And my co-worker and his wife (my yoga instructor), who’s house I was at on New Year’s Eve.  My office coordinator.  I didn’t talk to her for like a year after I technically met her, but as soon as we started talking, we connected – and I use that word with holy reverence.  My friend from NoVA. And then two more people this past week.

All people who I met and just felt.. Yes, be my friend!  I welcome your presence – in any capacity – in my life.

So, even though I’m a newbie to the whole making new friends thing, I found that it actually strikes me quite well… I like it.  It’s like every friend is a whole new world unto themselves, a world not born to me until I met them.

 ~~~~~~

Each contact with a human being

is so rare, so precious,one should preserve it.

~Anais Nin

~~~~~

The Friend Who Cares

“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing… not healing, not curing… that is a friend who cares.

~Henri Nouwen

“One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention.”

~Clifton Fadiman

“We cannot tell the exact moment a friendship is formed; as in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses, there is at last one that makes the heart run over.”

~Unknown

Greatest Idea Ever

Have best friend like mine.

That will make your life so much easier and so much more worth living.

Also… tell her all your shit.

If she doesn’t help you sort it out (mine does!), find another best friend.

Make sure she marries someone fabulous, so that he can help keep you on the straight and narrow too.

Visit her as often as possible.  Even when you work too much.

Ask forgiveness when you screw things up.

And can I just say… she’s been my friend – my *real,* meaningful friend – my whole life.  That is so AMAZING!!  We don’t have a specific anniversary of when we became friends, so today is as good of a day as ever to celebrate that we’ve been friends 25 years and it has gotten better and better with time.

Ode to my best friend… She pulls through in a pinch ~ She can handle knowing my junk ~ She loves me ~  She accepts me ~ She’s always there for me ~ We are two peas in a pod ~ She likes me as much as I like her.

I love you, Best Friend R!  What would I do or be without you?  Ode to you.  You being my best friend is the greatest idea ever.

“Let It Be Me” by Ray LaMontagne

The link… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWpw3CMCEg&feature=related

More Like Her

I have a best friend.  I’ve mentioned her before.  She’s been with me through think and thin, since I was born, and I can’t even remember a time when she was not in my life.

I think she’s great.

That’s what I wanted to say in this blog… I think she’s more than great… I think she’s amazing.  And I think I’m so blessed to have her as my best friend.  I just can’t believe my “luck.”

And I wouldn’t mind being a bit more like her in:

- her search for authentic relationships

- her appreciation/love of/for her husband

- her original, brilliant thoughts

- her faithful friendship

- her grace for herself and others

- her unique style

- her consistent genuine-ness

I’m on my own journey, so I don’t want to live her life or anything, but I just like having someone in my life, someone very close, who is and inspires me to be more of what a I want to be.

*I love you, R.

A Girl Laughing

This is for you R, so next time you check you’ll have this to read…

 

I’m sitting in the library without you.

Sad story.

But there was just a girl in the stairwell.

Laughing.

And she sounded just like you.

It made me smile.

 

Love you.

~Me

To Be Loved

The alternative title to this post was “There Are Hardly Words,” because the only thing I wish to convey with this post is a feeling.  The feeling of feeling loved.  Not an easy thing to do with so simple an instrument as language.

Yesterday I felt loved.

In the afternoon I had a soccer game.  Now, I’ve been away from My Love (the game of soccer) for many months because I broke my foot.  But I’ve been away from my old teammates for even longer because I graduated.  Yesterday was the first time I’d seen them in a long, long time.  And I love them.

So, I get to the field (it’s an indoor field) and walk up to the front doors.  As soon… and I mean, immediately… as I opened the doors and took a step inside my teammates, who were all sitting there suiting up, saw me and there was an elated chorus of, “EVA!!!”

Oh, oh, oh.

Melted my heart.

If I was able to cry when I want to (which I’m not), I’d have cried my eyes out the next moment I had alone.  I felt so loved.  That’s all I can say.  I don’t have any other words.

Then…

I was at work in the evening, like I have been most Sundays for the last while, and consequently had to miss my small group meeting at church.  Again.  I really like the people in my small group and I wish I could see them every week.  They give me hope for American Christians.  Anyway, much to my surprise, the leader of my group came with his wife (love them dearly) to visit me at my work, just to see what was going on in my life. 

I felt so loved.  There are no other words.

So Insanely Wonderful II

Oh, this beats it.  She’s in my Policy & Aging class.  HOORAY!!!

Miss E, you are now officially the best thing about Thursdays.

The Joy of Google Translate

I recently became acquainted with Google Translate and yesterday I was missing Best Friend SJ, who happens to be Korean.  We did YWAM together five years ago and from the moment I met her at one o’clock in the morning when I arrived in Montana, we didn’t spend a single day apart until we left YWAM five months later.  I wrote about her >>CLICK HERE<<. 

Anyway, I was just telling someone about her and it made me miss her, as is always the case whenever I think of her (we haven’t seen each other in five years).  So, I decided to harness my new-found power of Google Translate and write her an e-mail in Korean.  This is what I sent…

어떻게 지내세요? 당신이보고 싶습니다. 난 그냥 당신이 어제에 대해, 그리고 그게 날 얼마나 사랑하는 사람을 말하는 생각나게했다. 그게 내가 말하고 싶은 것은 … 난 아직도 당신을 사랑합니다.

Which translates as (or it was supposed to)…

“How are you?  I miss you.  I was just talking about you the other day and it reminded me how much I love you.  That is what I wanted to say…  I still love you.”

Then last night I got this response back (this is just the beginning)…

“You sent me email in korean, right??
I couldn’t belive that you know Korean this much!
Awesome, I love you Eva!!:) You are so lovely person~
어떻게 지내세요?
Eva는 정말 멋져요. (Eva is so cool.)
You used very difficult grammar in Korean…so smart!”

I haven’t had the heart to tell her yet, but I will.  And just in case she happens to come here…

SJ, you make me smile.  I love your English and I can still hear your voice saying the words whenever I read your e-mails.  Thanks for always understanding me.   당신을 사랑합니다.