[2022-06-15] Inexpressible comfort
In my recent post Fueling friendship, I talked about an upcoming visit with two former colleagues with whom I had remained friends after we ceased to work together more than 10 years ago.
Today, after several months of false starts, we were finally able to get together in person for a proper visit.
We spent part of the visit traipsing around the woodlot of one, laughing and learning as we strolled. I embraced a tree, a beautiful red pine dubbed the "hugging tree." As much as I love trees, I've never wrapped my arms around one, pressed my face to its bark and simply breathed. It was inexplicably calming, much like the hugs from the two gentlemen themselves.
My day calls to mind a quote by English novelist and poet Dinah Maria Mulock Craik that a friend sent to me years ago:
Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
I feel safe with these two men—more than safe, in fact. I feel cherished.
I had allowed the busyness of my job as an assistant deputy minister to reduce my life to work and immediate family. I had fallen out of touch with these two friends. But a month after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer and on an evening I had written a blog post about laughter, I decided that I would try to re-establish our connection. They welcomed me back with grace.
I look forward to our next visit in the fall when I can once again walk with my friends among the trees.
