There is no one in this world quite like my best friend. There are a lot of women walking this earth who might be as pretty as she is. There are probably a few out there who are as kind or as funny or even as smart as she is. There’s most likely one or two women in this world who even look a little like her or sound like her when they laugh. But, that’s the trouble with people, you know? You can’t tell by just looking or listening, sometimes, what makes a person unique. You usually have to dig for a while and study a person for a long time in order to determine what those little “things” are that make a person special. That, right there, is the reason that I knew Melissa was different. When I met Mel – and, I mean, from the first time I looked at her – I knew that we had something special together. There is a deep and palpable connection between us, and the bond was there from day one. There is something inside us that is the same…and that part of each of us recognized it in the other. So, there was never a moment between us when we didn’t know that we were destined to be the closest kind of friends.

Melissa and I live under the belief that we are what we call “cosmically connected.” It’s kind of a joke between us, but it’s a serious thing, too. We can talk without speaking. There have been many times when actual words – true conversation – pass between us without either of us opening our mouths. When one of us is hurting, the other one knows about it…and feels it…from miles away. When we are together, nothing bad can touch us. There is a light around the two of us, and people can see it – have seen it. People look at pictures of the two of us, and the comment is always something like, “Goodness, you two look tight,” or “Wow, you really love her, don’t you?” When people react to us that way, we always just smile and then look at each other and say, “yep, she’s my bestest friend.” Because, really, we haven’t figured out anything better to call it by. The word "friend" is too small...too common. But...in the absence of something better to call it, we just smile together in the understanding that, sometimes, it's ok not to have a label for things.

I first met Melissa through another old friend of mine, named Dan, almost 6 years ago. Dan had just started dating her and, “just by accident,” I happened to come over for a visit when Melissa was at his apartment. Now…at this time in Dan’s life, he dated all kinds of girls, and I never paid any attention to which one he had over “this time.” I just paid my civil attentions to whichever female happened to be there and then sat down to play Nintendo or cards whatever else had been named the activity of the evening. This particular night, though, I walked into Dan’s kitchen to grab a beer from the refrigerator and almost ran into the large poof of curly blonde hair that was attached to a tiny little woman talking on the kitchen phone with the Steak-Out delivery guy (if you’ve never had Steak Out food, you just don’t know what you’re missing). That was the first time I ever saw her.

We spent the rest of that night talking, and we’ve been stuck together ever since.

I get down on my knees and thank my Creator every single time I think about Melissa. There are so many people in this world who never meet a friend like that. I know so many of my female acquaintances and friends who just don’t have a person that they are connected to like I am with Mel. I know that I’m lucky. I know that I should be grateful…and I am.

Naturally, there is trouble in every friendship. Tests come along to break us, but if we’re strong, they never can. Mel and I have had our share of tiffs, tussles, and tangles. Most of them involved some unworthy man or other, but we managed to learn from them all. There have been times when we hurt each other, and there have been times when we didn’t trust. That was all silly and selfish, though, and when it’s over, neither of us can ever really remember why it started in the first place. Trials are a part of love, though. If we didn’t have them, then how would we know how good it really is? How would we know that we can make it through anything together if we never have to try? If life didn’t have bad things, then we’d never truly understand how precious the good things really are.

Just to express how special and “meant to be” our friendship is, I’d like to add that while I have been writing the above, Melissa called me just because “she was thinking about me.” That sort of thing happens all the time. Humans have a 6th sense…whether you believe in it or not…it’s real. There are people in this world that are meant to be, or who are made to be, together. They fit one another. The purpose or meaning of life is to find those people who fit you. I’m convinced of it. Life is never so complete as when we find and surround ourselves with the people that love us because it’s instinct – who love us because it’s in their nature to do so.

Seek those people out. There aren’t many of them out there…but they are there. They need you and you need them. You just maybe haven’t figured that out, yet. I found mine. I have two beautiful people in my life who fill that space in my spirit that was yearning to search and be sought. One is my Melissa, and the other is my Ashley. Love comes in all kinds of flavors, shapes, and applications. Each person in this world is different, but all of us want and need other people (whether we want to admit that need or not is food for an entirely different kind of essay). Somewhere out there, walking the earth, is a flesh and blood person with something inside of him/her that matches something inside of you. Be still and watch. Listen carefully so that you don’t miss it. When you find them…your life will never be the same, and…like the microwave, your television, and your favorite digital appliances…you’ll wonder how in God’s name you ever managed to breathe without them.








The photographs on this page were created using Paint Shop Pro. The text header and accent images were created using a freeware font called, Hansa.

The text and images on this page were created by and are the exclusive property of Aspen Lowood and Lowood Online. They may not be taken from this site or copied, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the owner. The webmistress may be reached for question or comment at aspenusmc@hotmail.com.