To be continued....

Faith has a funny way of leading you to where you ought to be. In the same manner, while it still baffles me as to how it can lead you to a particular person in the most unexpected place and time, I have come to believe that every person we met, we never meet by accident. One way or the other, faith had a hand on it. I do not aspire to understand the inner workings of faith. I have never been comfortable at aspiring for the things that are beyond my fallible mind. I am just happy to know that it led me to a particular person. That person, who became my treasured friend, is the subject of what I am writing now.

Truth be told, I promised that friend of mine that I will write her a letter. God knows how much I tried to write her one. In fact, several drafts are still stored in my computer. The problem is - those letters don’t seem to be worthy of sending. The dilemma is quite simple really; I can never the write a perfect letter that would fit the perfect friend. So, rather than spending an eternity writing drafts, I chose to play it safe. This, whatever you may want to call it, is the nearest thing to a letter that I could possibly write for my friend. I am fervently hoping that this will somehow convince her that I was able to fulfill my promise.

Somewhere between the boundary of the things that are likely and unlikely to happen, I met Gem. The first meeting was a casual one. A friendly introduction was followed by a friendly handshake. Nothing could be simpler. At that time, there was nothing that would even slightly suggest that that friendly handshake, that friendly hello, would spark a friendship that is incomparable to those which I had previously experienced. Never had I imagined that that person would teach me what it means to have a friend; more importantly, that person taught me what it means to be a friend to someone. For that lesson alone, I would forever be in debt. Because of that, I am ready to declare as a universal truth that – the simple, casual, unnoticeable moments in our lives, ultimately, leads us to the extraordinary moments.

Unlike most stories with a clear beginning, I cannot state with absolute certainty how Gem and I became close. I cannot remember the specific time when I started to trust her with my life’s secrets. I just know that I did. Anyway, who would not? There is no mystery in that. After all, she personifies everything that is worth trusting. I am not exaggerating when I say that I even trust her more that I trust myself. At the risk of sounding redundant, there is nothing incomprehensible with being able to trust a person like her. As to why she trusts me (well at least I think she does) – that is the mystery of all mysteries; a mystery that up to now, I am still trying to unravel.