In 2007 an old friend of mine died. Between 1995 and 2006 we had lost touch but in the spring of 2007 I found her on facebook and the following December she died of colorectal cancer. Her widow gave me a bag containing fourteen letters I’d written to her between 1986 and 1993.
Anne had a great mind and a magic heart. At university we met in first year residence. Talking politics and philosophy with her was bliss. We sharpened each other’s minds. When we reconnected in 2007 it was joyous and heartfilling. It turned out she lived just a couple of hours away and we met for lunch. When I heard her laugh, eleven years evaporated.
We are in many ways the sum of all our relationships. In some cases this is baggage, in others – the precious bits of ourselves we can adore. Anne’s absence is finite now but the glints of me shaped in her presence continue to grow.
The letters I wrote to Anne are candid and passionately youthful. Our mutual admiration and deep trust are implicit in what seem now like offerings of my rawest truths. Experiences and beliefs birthing out of my life sometimes even as I wrote. Halfway through reading the letters I realized I had unknowingly written to myself twenty years in the future.
Somehow, with this blog, I want to share and integrate the message I wrote myself. And at the same time honour a woman who inspired a lot of people to find their best. It’s going to be fun.
