Tangible

I've mentioned a brilliant little book I recently finished, Cold Tangerines. My entire copy is now full of starred paragraphs and sentences, thoughts leaking out into the margins that I want to read over and over again, that I want to take a deep breath and soak in. I think should I ever write a book, this is the style I would like it to be in: quips and quotes and run-on thoughts that simply can't be contained within the confines of grammatical correctness but that instead overflow from each page into the hearts and minds of the readers.

Eh, one day.

For now, some thoughts on friendship from the book:

"Friendship is acting out God's love for people in tangible ways... It is an opportunity to act on God's behalf in the lives of the people that we're close to, reminding each other who God is... We get to remind one another about the bigger, more beautiful picture that we can't always see from where we are... True friendship... happens when we drop down into that deeper level of who we are, when we cross over into the broken, fragile parts of ourselves. We have to give something up in order to get friendship like that. We have to give up our need to be perceived as perfect. We have to give up our ability to control what people think of us. We have to overcome the fear that when they see the depths of who we are, they'll leave. But what we give up is nothing in comparison to what this kind of friendship gives to us. Friendship is about risk. Love is about risk. If we can control and manage it and manufacture it, then it's something else, but if it's really love, really friendship, it's a little scary around the edges."

It's like making 11 phone calls back and forth just to finish a conversation when you keep getting cut off, perfecting the cinnamon roll recipe and finding as much joy in the making as the eating, a 30th birthday party and staying late because the company is just that good, grilling in the rain just to share a new food, the final two minutes in a soccer game, hanging out all morning at Autozone because sometimes you just need a sidekick, and not being able to imagine life without these moments.