I just might be stronger than I know. Well I might really be surprised.
Dolly's words are hitting me hard tonight.
I just finished a letter to a dear friend. Well, what used to be a dear friend. Times change, people grow apart. We disagree and we fight and we let go of relationships that were so important to us at one point.
But the thing that can set apart a true friendship is how to build the bridge to reconnect.
We used to write letters. She was my Big Apple Pen Pal to my Viennese letters. She answered every one diligently and excitedly. I'll be the first to admit I'm jealous of her way with words--the way they seem to come from her so easily and so beautifully. But it's just one of the things I admired about her.
We had our disagreements. Our rough spots. I didn't support her as I should have a classmate. A comrade. A cohort, even, on a fun night. We put our differences in the spotlight. We made them the center of our connection and then the other things fell away. The way we both loved books. The way we loved writing and reading and Vienna and chocolate and Smirnoff and pretty fonts.
We lost all those connections when we began to focus on the disconnect that was happening.
And I'm letting go. Apologies and all. I'm putting the letter in the mail tomorrow before work, and my greatest hope is that it reaches her before she leaves her summer job and my courage to say I'm sorry is gone for another long while.
