Bosom Buddies

I miss my friends. I'm beginning to understand the concept of bosom buddies--they are the friends that when you think about them, your heart is both happy and sad. Happy because there is so much love between us, sad because there is so much distance between us. At least that's how it's been for me the past couple of days. Last night I talked to Aleah for over an hour, and when we finished, I was smiling, but my heart was a little achey.

But it was a good achey, does that make sense? I was content in the fact that I would have been okay if I didn't talk to anyone else that day because I had talked to Aleah. It probably helped that I had also talked to my little brother and mom earlier.

To use a term from Donald Miller, Aleah and I had a shared chapter for little while.

Yesterday I began to read Donald Miller's book "Through Painted Deserts." (Sorry, Dad, I bought it rather than going to the library...) And like my contentment after my conversation with Aleah, after reading only the author's note at the beginning of the book, I was content. I stopped reading because I didn't want to read anything to be better than what I just read. It was a strange thing for me--usually I want to keep reading to get to the next good part. This time I didn't want any more good parts to ruin the good part I just read.

"It's a living book, this life; it folds out in a million settings, cast with a billion beautiful characters, and it is almost over for you. It doesn't matter how old you are; it is coming to a close quickly. . . So soon you will be in the part of the book where you are holding the bulk of that pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right. You will know by the page number, not by the narrative, that the Author is wrapping things up. You begin to mourn its ending, and want to pace yourself slowly towards its closure, knowing the last lines will speak of something beautiful, of the end of something long and earned, and you hope the thing closes out like last breaths, like whispers about how much and who the characters have come to love, and how authentic the sentiments feel when they have earned a hundred pages of qualification."

I would put the whole introduction on my blog, but that would be ridiculous. My heart just feels good after reading this. Not the fact that our stories are coming to an end quickly, but that so much beauty has come from our stories. Eventually I'll start reading the rest of his book, but for now, the introduction is enough.

Until next time, feel content and love the characters in your story well.