Echoes.

There are times in my life that I haven’t trusted a soul.
Times when I haven’t had anyone to turn to, times when I was totally alone.

Leslie and I have been friends for more than half of the years I’ve been alive.
That’s a strange thought.
Of course, if you put together all the years that we liked each other in one continuous stream, the amount of time would be slightly shorter, but teenage years are like that, and with two dramatic souls such as ours, it was to be expected.

Now I’m going through a time.
I don’t know what else to call it but that.
Since Gran died, things are just… stressful isn’t the word, full wouldn’t cut it either…
It’s just A Time in my life that fills it so completely that it’s hard to have emotions for anything other than the immediate family and friends around me and the 11 year old love of my life.

I don’t have to tell this to Leslie.
I don’t really have to tell her much anymore.
She knows the good, the bad, the Really Ugly – and loves me regardless.
Sure, I frustrate the hell out of her.
Sure I can make her angry.
But she loves me.

And I can’t tell you what a blessed and wonderful feeling that is simply because it’s bigger than the minute vocabulary that I have. It’s warm and happy.
I’m lucky.

Yesterday I came home to a card in the mail.
Her stationary is quite recognizable… and I opened it quickly because she knows how much I love getting mail and cards…

And here’s what I found.
Simple – and couldn’t have touched me more.
I really needed to hear this from someone that knows me almost as well as I know myself.