Friendship gush

I can feel that I'm coming down with something. Noooooo! Not surprising, given how run down I've gotten this week.

You could have had the joy of dealing with an enraged rant from me, earlier today. (Yes, more negativity from Hilaire.) Dudes, you would not BELIEVE the ignorant cows who live in this house and with whom I share my laundry facilities. But you were saved from me unleashing my fury on Blogger, because the phone rang - twice! - bringing me in rapid succession the voices of two good friends from across the country, one in Home City and one in Fun City One Province Over.

And now I just feel happy, and I want to talk instead about friendship.

The second caller was my friend M, whom I've mentioned before, like here and here. Other than GF, he's the person I talk to the most. Tonight he called me because he was feeling lonely. We talked for two and a half hours. And when I hung up, I had such a feeling of contentment and peace. I felt deeply, almost spiritually grateful for him. This man is a gem. More than that, our friendship is a gem. It's certainly rare that, as an adult, you meet someone you know will be in your life for a long, long time. He's one of those, for me. I know this, even though I have only known him for, really, less than 18 months.

My favourite aunt, F, introduced us. (M and I have talked about how she is owed a big thank you from the universe. If we ever manage to be in M's hometown, where my aunt lives, at the same time, we need to take her out for a wine-soaked dinner to thank her - I love wine-soaked dinners with F.) He and I have similar paths, both being academics in the same general field, and we're about a year apart in age. That's not enough to make a friendship, though, of course. But there is an almost uncanny affinity between us on a personal level, and it is only enriched by the academic connections. I think our friendship is so strong because of a deep interest in and respect for each other. Those sound like such dispassionate words, but they're not, not at all. They are the ground of our friendship. I've almost never felt such interest and respect, in either direction; in a way, my friendship with M shows me what those words can really mean.

And, lest that sound all too buttoned up and respectable, let me also say that M is one of the only people I talk about sex with, and that these are fabulous conversations in which we both laugh a lot and think a lot. (In fact, he laughs so loud I always worry about him pissing off his neighbours.) What's better than that combination, laughing and thinking? And that my New Year's Eve last year, spent drinking champagne with him, was one of the more fun ones I've ever had.

It just hit me tonight how really quite precious our friendship is. I had to share it, because it touched me. And I feel full of the love, blogfriends! Awww.....