I have a friend that I only see once a year. She lives in Oregon with her beautiful family. We have had a long long friendship that started in high school. She was my most unlikely friend. At opposite poles we looked at life so differently. She was mischeivious while I was boringly safe. She took chances and I watched at the sidelines cheering her on. We had completely different associations than I and I was a little scared of hers. They too were chance takers. They were not willing to accept everything doled out to them. They questioned everything and if they wondered if a substance or activity was dangerous or harmful they tried it out to see for sure. Most of the time they laughed when the doomsday scare tactics didn't work on them.
I on the other hand chose to follow every rule given. I sat when told and I wore what I was told. I was the good student. The one no one had to worry about. I only took a few chances and when I did I would invariably end up getting caught. I simply looked guilty.
So not once, not twice, but three times Renae and I found ourselves at the same jobs. Totally without attempt. It was happenstance but not happenstance. It was a divine dictation. For what I found out was that those kids that scared me (and she was just as afraid of me and my kind) had so much depth and perception toward life that I lacked. I did the same for her. I found out she has a keen wit, a uncanny vocabulary and reads so fast the library can't keep up with her. Her mind is voracious for anything and everything that the written word can offer.
She also has a creative side sent from heaven above. Many a night have been spent knitting and cross-stitching and laughing. She taught me that a Coke is not a pop...it is a SODA. She taught me to sit back and gather treasures in words and share them only with those most trustworthy. She taught me that never, never, never settle for what I do not really really want from a marraige partner to what to order on the menu.
She always wore the cutest, prettiest, most seductive clothes and pulled it off while I was in throat clutching t shirts and jeans and I loved her just as she was because she loved me just as I was. She also loved my choices for me. They were not her choices and they never had to be. We have the most unique relationship in that we do not choose to desire to change the other. And so through the years we have been amazed at how two lives can be filled with the same joys the same truths the same knowings.
I have never laughed as hard I don't think as I have laughed with her.
And then she had children. Boys. Luscious gorgeous brilliant boys.
And when it was to be her 50th birthday soon I glimpsed upon the most perfect gift I have ever seen for my sweet friend. So perfect in fact that I ordered one myself. Bound in hand cut leather and held together tightly with a leather strap to be tied in the most wonderful twist these hand made pages of thick paper that were held together by a hand stitch taught by a master in Italy. When held one can only know that treasures belong on these pages. I knew that within Renae there are many many treasures. And so when she received her book then I removed mine from it's own box and thus began the filling.
She overwhelms me again with all the dreams she has recorded and the genius gut wrenching quotes and the pictures of those dreamy boys along with her gratitudes.
And so she is one of my pages in my book. I will print this writing and include her in my gratitudes for God knew she was my friend. I shudder to think I could have missed meeting her, knowing her. I was too busy maintaining proper decorum to notice this senstive sweetness that my soul requires. God took care to bring her in my life enough to begin to savor what He created in her and that she ran with.
A truly inspirational friend and an example of quiet knowing and trusting of her own unique perfect self.
I love my Renae.
