Unexpected Friends

Sometimes I meet someone that I actively solicit to be my friend — someone with whom I connect immediately and know that I want in my life.  And every now and then I end up with an unexpected friend — somebody that I meet, sitting next to me in a class I’m taking or someone who used to be a client of mine when I was still working.  Sometimes it’s a person with whom I initially could have sworn I had nothing in common — until one day we ate lunch together and found ourselves deep in conversation, discovering so much that we shared.  Not peripheral stuff but important, deep down, basic belief things — and the person can be twenty years older than I am or that many years younger. Sometimes it’s not an immediate connection at all — sometimes it’s a relationship that develops slowly, over time.  With one person, I didn’t even realize what good friends we had become until one day suddenly, I felt something shift — something she said or something I heard differently, I don’t remember — but I knew.  Good friendships are invaluable.  Like children and gardens, they need to be nurtured.