Friendship & Splinters

Monica: I am so thankful for the five precious days of girl time we shared, which was the most time we've had together since 2005 when she visited me in Tucson. In college, we road-tripped our way across the western states several times, and later spent six weeks backpacking across Europe. When I got out of the Peace Corps, she joined me for three weeks of travel in Thailand and Bali.  Then life happened: we got "real" jobs, got married, bought homes. Now we live on opposite coasts, on opposite shores. And it has become harder to make time for just the two of us. So this week has been a gift for both of us. Five days of long talks and moments of sacred silence. Five days of laughter and tears and sharing. Five days to reconnect and pay tribute to our nearly 20-year friendship.

Evelyn: For the longest time I have held a subconscious awareness, or perspective, that life was filled with a series of injuries, little splinters that would fester and irritate the skin of my being in an unseen and powerless sort of way. Part of making my way has been the process of recognizing the splinters, and making sense of the chafing beliefs moving beneath them. Then, in a moment of quiet, tender, gentle appreciation I had a whole new sensation, a moment in which a fragment was cleared, and the warm, tearful relief when my skin was absolved of that festering pressure and left to heal... feeling soothed - accepted - loved - appreciated. I hadn't realized the pain beneath that splinter, how deeply seeded it had been, until it was coaxed out and left there. Seems I am having a series of splinters removed lately, and though the anxiety that ruminates in my space as I learn new ways of connecting with myself and others isn't always pleasant, the relief of coming to a new acumen, of seeing myself and others with fresh compassion, of being handled with regard and love, is a passage to healing and forgiveness. I have such gratitude for that splinter, both for the lessons it has taught me, and without it, I would not have known the relief, the awareness, the joy, or even the tenderness that follows on its withdrawal.