Dear Emma (haibun)

I wrote a post this afternoon to you, Emma, but cyberspace was very hungry, I guess, and it ate the whole darn thing! Let’s see. I was telling you about my plans to visit two amazing friends. One I can only see once a year when she comes from Brazil to visit her daughter in Toronto. The other is a friendship that grew over time who I will also be visiting in Ontario.

I met my friend from Brazil through an old boyfriend and we connected immediately. I felt we were like soulmates. I guess there is nothing to explain that…it is a feeling you get with some rare and unique people in a lifetime.

Each time I spend time with this friend, I grow on so many levels. She is an artist as well as a therapist and so since I cannot draw, I paint my canvas with words and am also a counsellor. We have children of similar ages and share starting life over, or ending it (however you want to look at it) on our own, like big girls.

My other friend is brilliant, creative, rational and warm. Where I am touchy freely, she is artistic and a doer. I admire her tenacity and although life has thrown her several curved balls, she has succeeded in ways, I am not sure I could have. Her strength is what also sustains me. We connected first at work and I felt inclined to share my poetry with her right from the beginning. Our friendship just blossomed over time.

After spending time with these two amazing women, on my drive or train ride back home, I feel so inspired and have the urge to write about it. I feel I grow creatively, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and physically because I feel a bit taller, sticking my chest out and holding my head up high. I so look forward to seeing them both next week.

Well, Emma, I don’t think I told it like it was on my first draft but the essence is there. Thanks for listening, as always.

seasoned minds
sharing life
past and present

past and present
fears and joys shared
future in between