My Heart's Desire.

What do you do when you have gotten your heart’s desire? I mean when you have honestly had a real, spoken, heartfelt prayer answered? The kind of thing that you have wished, hoped, and truly prayed about for years? That is the kind of situation I find myself in today. And it all happened less than 24 hours ago. And, I’m still trying to wrap my head, and my heart, around this amazing turn of events.

Many people on the face of this Earth take their friends, and most friendships, for granted. They have seen the same people day in and day out for many years, if not their entire lives, and are used to having these people in their world. But, there are some of us who have had the good (?) fortune to have lived in many different places in the world, and have met many different people. Some good, some not so great, but many that have become friends. People that have shared some common bonds; school, work, travel, children. There are as many different bases for friendships as there are people. As time goes on, and you move on from your current life and situation, you find that some of these friendships just don’t feel relevant any longer, so these people slip through your fingers and out of your life.

I know this has certainly happened to me, and for the most part I just think about most of these folks once in a while and hope that they are ‘doing well’. The basic things that we all wish for; good health, great kids, good jobs. But then there are people that we have let slip away and we live to regret letting them go so casually. I am thinking specifically about my absolute best friend, Michele.

I met Michele the first week of 8th grade, in the girls locker room at school. We had gym lockers next to each other, and we started talking after class. And we never seemed to stop. Except for when we were laughing, which was quite often. And over the same things that school girls have laughed about for ‘always’. I can’t name anything in particular, but I know it was just every day living. School, boys, parents, other people at school. Michele was a person who totally ‘got’ me, and I never had to explain. And neither did she. The term ‘soul mate’ is used quite often, but she truly is mine.

Well, ‘is’ may be a bit premature. We haven’t spoken to each other in over 30 years, so using the present tense may be a bit presumptuous, but hopefully not. Especially when it comes to describing a soul mate, once you find them then that should be the end of it. Having that kind of connection should be for ever, right?

The coolest part is that my prayers have been answered. After my years of searching on the internet, and even just plain looking in phone books, SHE found ME. And I couldn’t be happier. Not just ‘oh, how nice..’ kind of happy. No, this is a deep and profound happiness that I have never experienced before. I now know that she is well, she is happy, and that she is the same Michele that I knew. And, I have reaffirmation that God does indeed love me (forgive me, but I’m only human and have my tiny doubts sometimes.) He answered my prayer. It took a while, but he did. And I know not to question his time line, he did it for a particular reason, so I’m going with it.

Post ed: I wrote this some time ago, but have just now gotten around to posting it here. In that time Michele and I have spoken often, and it is indeed like we have never been apart. There is this gap of our lives that we can't get back, but there is a part of me that doesn't care. We have said so much that is still true today, and even though we have both lived a lot of life Michele is still much the same as she was back in high school. I will say that there are days when things are not going well, and all I have to do is think about Michele and how she is really IN my life again and I'm happy. The bad stuff doesn't seem so bad, it's all thrown into perspective. I hope that if Michele reads this, as well as Betsy, Debbie and Kathy, that they all know I am only a phone call away. That is such a blessing to be able to have again. Thank you all for blessing me with your friendship.