#reverb10: Friendship

Today's #reverb10 writerly prompt is: December 16: Friendship. How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst? (Author: Martha Mihalick)

When tasked to think beyond the deep, reflective friendship that is a blessed part of my relationship with Jon, I immediately think of my girlfriends. And while I am lucky to have many of them, the first person who comes to mind with this prompt is Asha Dornfest.

Asha is one of the first people I connected with when I started blogging; remarkably, I reached out to her, and even though I was a newbie, she responded quickly, thoughtfully, and graciously. And since that first connection point in 2006, we’ve kept in touch online and experienced several unfortunate misfires where we were supposed to be at the same place at the same time (conferences, think tanks, etc.) and it didn’t work out.

But finally, in August, we met in real life at BlogHer. And of course we decided to be roommates, despite never having shared actual face time together.

And it was perfect.

Spending time with Asha didn’t result in a major perspective shift per se, but it afforded much needed clarity and affirmation, particularly given the frenzied setting we were in. We enjoyed several wonderful chats about life, blogging, priorities, and long-term goals, and never was it more clear to me that following my instinct, taking an organic approach to creativity and work (i.e., not pounding the pavement like I see a lot of other folks do and sometimes wonder whether I should be doing), and putting family and personal matters first is where I want to be.

Thank you, Asha, for those precious moments. I’m so grateful for your friendship and can't wait for our next in person chat.