The Gift

Yesterday's post went on and on about the guilt I felt, after indulging myself in accepting a gift ...

I have a friend that is not only the most intuitive person I know, but she acts on many of her thoughts. I call her a mind reader but she insists that she is no different than anyone else. She is simply in tune to what she senses and acts accordingly.

Mine is not a hard mind to read. If it's not something that I am blatantly talking about ... just ask me. I'll tell you pretty much anything. But every once in a blue moon, I have thoughts that I keep to myself.

This is a friend that I would go to first. She is the easiest person in the world to talk to.

When I found myself pregnant and quite alone ... when I was ready to talk, I talked to her. She already knew (I think she knew before I did). She walked down that road with me when I was alone. She listened, she called and she kept me sane.

She was the one that was here for moral support when I struggled with the right-thing-to-do when my oldest son and I were having a lot of trouble.

She heard me out when my heart was broken.

Our friendship is more than me running to her when I have troubles (in fact, I don't think I've ever run to her ... she has simply been there). We have worked together and share that common ground. Our lives have led us in different directions, but we still connect. She listens a lot but says little about herself. At times I do question if the friendship is a little lop sided. I talk too much ... but yet, when I tentatively ask her a question there is reserve in her answers. So I respect that and I don't push too much.

That's the history ... now on with Sunday's gift:

My friend's phone call to invite me to come along to see 'A Chorus Line' with her, came out of the blue. She issued the invitation, instructed me to take 5 minutes to think about it and call back. Show time was in 2 hours.

I did wonder how she ended up with a spare ticket to see this show, but this particular friend is very lucky in some ways and she does often have these opportunities fall into her lap. My guess was, that she had won the tickets and the person she expected to go with couldn't make it at the last moment.

I was wrong.

Still reluctant to give me details, she eventually confessed that she knew this was the only way I would agree to go. If she had called and given me time to think about it, she knew that I would talk myself out of it (she is right).

Which brought me to the next question ... how in the world did she know that I wanted to go to this show?? She smiled and I believe she thought about keeping me guessing. But she had been in the dance studio and had been talking to the instructor that is teaching us the group formation dance. It came up in their conversation, that we were working with music from 'A Chorus Line' ... and she took it from there.

This was a gift that far exceeded the actual tickets (which was rather amazing unto itself). It is the gift of a friend who knows me so well, that she knew (without me saying a word) exactly what I wanted. She also knew (better than I did), the way in which I would follow my basic instincts and not allow guilt to talk me out of accepting it.

This friend is the true gift. How do you thank someone when the words ''Thank you" don't even come close to covering it?