Hi you, 

Did you know it's possible to miss someone you've never met? To look across a crowded room at the coffee shop and feel like every person there is somehow a friend through camaraderie? To meet a stranger's eyes in the grocery line at the store and wish you could get to know this person deeply? 

There are things which I think about when it rains. Because with the cobweb in the corner of the window to keep you company, someone to keep your toes warm, and hot tea at hand the world is quite cozy and comfortable as it should be. 

It was a good weekend. Friendships were sweet and laughter unalloyed. The coffee was mellow, and the rain sweeping in sheets across the different windows of Friday-Sunday whispered melancholy to me. I love to feel a bit melancholy as long as it doesn't shift to darkness. 

We discussed love this weekend; what does it mean? As an idealist masquerading as a realist with a closet romantic streak it's a topic I tend to keep low key. But it means a great deal to me. It's one area of my life I cannot quite bring to rational heel. It won't obey me. It keeps on being wild and tender, messy and sweet, and thoughtful. 

Of course we also discussed romantic love, because what else are so many (mostly) romantics to do? One thought that love was falling, eternally, for another person. One thought that love is a choice, and yet another that love was persevering in life and growing old together. Well, we all thought that. Love was decided eventually to be many things. It was the flight, the fall, the choice, the baby crying, the new house, the valuing of one person above others, and eventually, the knowledge that with this person, you could, and did, weather together. 

Love is trust. As I sat at one of the many coffee shops and talks of the weekend, friendships seemed especially rich to me. By the same token, it frightened me indescribably. Such power as we place in the hands of one another when we open our hearts to friendships, to boyfriends and girlfriends, to our children, as husband and wife, and to One Who has taught us all what love and friendships really mean. 

Here is what our little group of friends decided love really means. 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love, never fails. The greatest is love.