friends

There are those people in our lives who, despite their or our best intentions, refuse to leave. They are not the stalkers of our spare moments or of our comings and goings...

they are the ones who turn up when they are least expected...and most needed. They are the ones who shimmer in our peripheral vision, seemingly forever. They are the ones who are glad to hear from us, even when we have been gone from their lives six months or a year or more. They are not counting days as debts, they are only happy that we still have voice and story to share. They are the ones who send the unexpected card, or who are there every day for a week and every month for a year, or just love you though you are broken and bent and inescapably human.

Sometimes, in the beginning, it is hard to sift these from the others, the necessary, sweet and valuable acquaintances, the ones who slip quietly out the same way they came in. There is no shame in being or having acquaintances. They, too, are part of community. They, too, are part of living in a place...

but oh, the rich flavour of friends' voices, the ease and joy of their smiles, their laughter, their care, their love. Oh, the relief of being truly known...and oh, the relief in being able to love.