do you have people in your life who just ... speak truth to you? one time, my friend bonnie, in her infinite whimsicality, asked me to "tell her something true." how would i even begin to do that? but, it's been something i've pondered ever since [ever since being .. at least the past two years? perhaps more?]. i wonder what gives these statements truth. i suspect it has more to do with their timing than their content. or maybe it's that they speak uniquely you, right in the moment when you aren't quite sure what 'you' means.

anyhow, i feel like i'm rapidly collecting these moments as of late, so i'm going to compile them [even if some of them were sent secondarily instead of by their original authors; same principle]. perhaps they'll serve as an anchor at some future prodigal point?

...

"Please. (I'll demand politely.) I know your MO, so you'll have no choice but to share, got it?! :)"


"They may have many friends, but they don't have another Ashley G. (I was just going to write "another Ashley" but Ashley's such a common name that I thought I'd be more specific)."


"i love how instead of asking 'does that mean something's wrong?' you wrote 'does that mean everything's okay?' hmmm. what does that say about you, or me, or our relationship? ;)"


"So every day
I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth
of the ideas of God,
one of which was you."


"I am really not meant to be a part of society I think. It irks me."


"if the whole psych thing doesn't work out...you could totally be a preacher. we could go to africa together and be a preaching psych pair of the introverted variety."


"I have often been told that when one first turns to God, one is greeted with brilliant Yes answers to prayers. For a long time that was true for me. But then, when he has you hooked, he starts to say No. this has been, indeed, my experience. But it has been more than a No answer lately; after all, No is an answer. It is the silence, the withdrawal, which is so devastating. The world is difficult enough with God; without him it is a hideous joke." - Madeleine L'Engle


"this is not what i'm going to forreal write you."


"i'm back and i see your green dot!!"


"Take it from me--crazy life is much better than sitting around with nothing to do but sit around and get crazy in your head. Crazy life is much better than crazy in your head."


"I started dancing in my kitchen when I read your email. Then I hugged Ellen and tried to tell her about the beauty of women friends. Just yesterday, she, Sean and I had a conversation in which they both tried to convince me that, based on their experiences, girls make lousy friends to each other. I assured them that this can change."


"..it makes perfect sense to me that the one you sent (and the caption) made you think of me – not that I can say why exactly."


"I found it simultaneously humbling and encouraging. As always, I am struck by our collective vulnerability and strength."


"It's a beautiful mystery isn't it?"


"You wrote with such passion and urgency, giving me the feeling that you might have been out of breath by the end of it. I could literally feel the pulse of that email - - it was wonderful!"


"Just a crazy love for them - - not for their possibilities (although that's a piece of it I'm sure), but for who they are at this moment. They move me."


"Life doesn't get any better. This I know for sure."

.....


From This River, When I Was a Child, I Used to Drink

But when I came back I found
that the body of the river was dying.

"Did it speak?"
Yes, it sang out the old songs, but faintly.

"What will you do?"
I will greive, of course, but that's nothing.

"What precisely will you grieve for?"
For the river. For myself, my lost
joyfulness. For the children who will not
know what a river can be--a friend, a
companion, a hint of heaven.

"Isn't this somewhat overplayed?"
I said: it can be a friend. A companion. A
hint of heaven.

....

"I have come to believe that over the course of a lifetime, if we are fortunate, we will find a few souls that serve as anchors for our own soul and that this is what we seek - - sometimes tentatively as in our most vulnerable and lonely moments and sometimes with passion and abandon. I believe that we are drawn and compelled by certain people regardless of age, gender, interests, experiences, personality, and so forth. They simply catch us up in some inexplicable way."