Losing a Best Friend

Have you ever lost a best friend? Have you ever felt the heart-wrenching feeling of knowing you can't pick up that phone and call them and hear that voice on the other end, the voice of the one person you know will understand you, and who will stand by you no matter what stupid mistake you've made? You can't open the computer and compose an email for them to tell them how your day has been. You can't even sit and watch the moonrise, or the sunset, and know you will be able to tell them about it later. All of the little things in life that you passingly thought were "nice" become priceless. Every meadowlark singing in the sagebrush, every butterfly, even the smallest pink stone, lost among a million others along the bank of a river. A blue forget-me-not, blooming in the spring, becomes some kind of a beacon, sent to you, you fancy, by that friend you can no longer see.

Have you ever woken to the emptiness of longing for one last hug, one last word of praise, one last touch? Have you ever walked through a forest or along a gurgling stream and thought of God and eternity and wondered why, if you can't be with your best friend, you ever came to earth in the first place? Have you ever dreamed of the past and wondered if you could have changed it, had you only known what was out there? What was waiting around the very next bend?

Have you ever stared into the vastness of the sky and watched the clouds, those silent castles and dragons, wizards and ... angels ... and wondered if your best friend is somewhere looking at them too? Have you ever felt a passing breeze, cool on an otherwise hot day, or warm on a day when winter is not far gone or fall is waning, and wonder if that breeze is the touch of your friend, a wish for you. Does your friend long for you as you do them? Do they keep secrets that no one else will ever know because you were the only person they could tell them to, the only person who would listen or even try to understand?

Simon and Garfunkel sang "I am a rock. I am an island." But in the grand scheme of things there should never be a rock of that kind, nor that type of island. Every person should, at least once in their lifetime, meet that best friend who changes the way they think about the universe, about life, about love. If you are not looking and you let that one best friend who could have been but never was pass you by then the blessings you could have had will be sadly locked away in a treasure chest you will never see. Will you experience the pain of losing that best friend? Perhaps. Only time knows that. But it is a promise that you will cherish their memory, and it is reflections of them that will carry you through some of your darkest days. Reach out. Touch. Give. When you find that best friend you will know it. Then hold onto them as tightly as you can as long as time will let you. You just never know when fate will choose to carry them away.