The Heart of Friendship

For the last 24 hours I have been running around like a nutter with my partner in Crime and Best friend, my twin sister Kate.
It's amazing just how much an increased body of geographical distance can be so effective in bringing two people closer together...at least emotionally and spiritually.

Obviously I've spent my life in the company of Kate. We've been the little terrors growing up, sneaking out of our room during lunch-time nap in order to paint hopscotch on the driveway with house paint, roll every can in the cupboard out across the kitchen floor, take mums best china down to the sandpit to make sand castles...we truely made a great team, together nearly driving our mother insane...

But as we got older (we still make our best attempts to drive our mother insane) the dynamic began to change between us, I don't think that there has ever been a time when Kate wasn't my best friend, but as time went on she became so much more than that, she became my confidant, my encourager, my critic, my shoulder, my soul mate.

During high school, we always had the intention of leaving home together, becoming flatmates and staying close-by for as long as possible, however God did not have the same plans for us. At the beginning of 2003 Kate and I found ourselves living roughly 6 hours from one another,and I'll be the first to say that was tough...

However in retrospect, it was the greatest thing which could have happened, for both of us.

God had decided that it was time to pull these two little country bumpkins out of their comfort zone. During the early years of our life, as we had struggled with issues of rejection and the likes, God had allowed us to comfort one another, and that had been an awesome blessing. But now God was calling us to become true individuals to break away from the cocoon which was our little world, and create something different. That was a long, tiring process, but the blessings have been abundant.
God has poured out in each of us a sense of self, a sense of independence and a greater and more ardent trust in him and his plan.

As I sit here and reminise on the weekend which just was, I smile. I love Katie with a love which is so sincere. No matter how much time has passed between phone-calls, no matter how long it's been since I last hugged her...when we're together, it's crazy...it's like no time has passed. As though someone hit the pause button where we left off...and hit play again later...

(...lapse in time...)

A buddy just walked into the room and asked me what I would say blessed me this week...I had to smile and say the first thing, "Seeing Katie and knowing that she's the greatest friend God's given me in this life ..."

Seems like the best way to end this tonight...
So I want to dedicate this to Kate, my constant fountain of support, compassion, conviction, encouragement and love...we will travel the world together one day...just not this day, Gods got some more things he wants us to do as individuals, more breaking, shaping and moulding untill he's ready for us to hit this earth full force, combined!
Stay beautiful, Be everything you are, I love you.