Sisterhood

 Have you ever met someone and your spirits so clicked that you wondered if you knew them in a prior life? Maybe you had been part of the same outlaw gang. Maybe you used to rope and ride in the same cowgirl rodeo. Maybe you were both warrior queens in the Scottish Highlands. 

I've been on an aisle at Walmart and said something crazy and outrageous to someone whom I didn't know, and they answered me back in the same way so that we both went into whoops of laughter. You may never meet again, but you know you just met a kindred spirit.  Sometimes the connection is not quite so wild. Sometimes it is more of a feeling of peace and ease. In fact, you may not have that much in common on the surface, but there is a like-spirit there - as if you have known each other for a long time. It is more of a sisterhood thang.

I have a friend now, that I often think that it is probably a good thing that we did not know each other in high school/college, because we could have been really bad together. It is probably good that we have mellowed in our older age and have come together without causing a todo. I also have a friend that I'm pretty sure we would not have been good friends in high school; we are so different. Yet, I love the differences in us. Somewhere deep down there are like spirits that reach out through our differences and spark.

I love it when I feel that spark. Today I met a lady and had an enjoyable conversation with her, but there was not that spark at all - no recognition of spirit, whatsoever. Although the conversation flowed well enough, it felt like work. As Jesse would say, "Ackward! She was a very nice lady, and I am sure we will meet again and feel more at ease with each other. I will work on it. But I really like it when there is no work to it.

Sometimes I feel such a difference of spirits with someone - so very ackward - that I just give up the work and let 'er rip. I might as well be me and give up all pretense of fitting in. That can work well. It is kind of like laying yourself out there and seeing if they pick up what you laid down. If they do, great. If they don't, nothing lost. (Please don't grammar check my lay/laid use. It is not important to me to check on it myself :)

There are those friends that I have felt ackward with in the past, but it was well worth it to push through the ackward and find out who they were and discover like spirits. Maybe some people are deeper than others and you have to dig to get to the real them. I think I must be fairly shallow, which is not bad. I know the connotation of that word, shallow, is not good, but that is not how I am using it. Maybe "simple" is a better word or "open". I would like to think so, anyway. 

The gist of this is that I love it when there is a spark of recognition between spirits and friendships are easy. I don't mind working at friendships. Ackward is tough, but not un-do-able.  Of course, it takes two people wanting to be friends to make it work. If only one is working at it, chances are the friendship won't go far, but that may be another blog post.