"I miss you!"
"I'm thinking of you all the time."
"I'll be praying for you."
Such pretty things to say, aren't they? They slip off our tongues with ease, so simple to bend the truth for sentiment's sake. I wonder how many things in an average conversation are pretty lies.
I got to thinking about this phenomenon the other day because a friend of mine got married.
Now, this isn't just any friend. She and I were best friends for years when we were younger. We started secret clubs and built forts in the woods. We made pacts and could literally finish each other's thoughts. She was the sister I never had and we swore that we would be best friends forever.
That was a childish promise, but as an eight-year-old, I honestly believed those words. I could never imagine my life without her in it.
It broke my heart the first time I called her and couldn't figure out anything to talk about. We had nothing in common anymore and the silence was cold and unfamiliar.
When I was browsing around Facebook the other day I found picture's from her wedding. I felt like I broke something sacred when I found out that I missed her wedding. I remember as girls planning how we would get married. We agreed that we would be the maid-of-honor at each other's weddings. All of this was going through my head as I pondered the photo of that beautiful bride, that gorgeous girl who I used to know so well.
Now, there's no way I could have been at that wedding. She lives in Finland now, and I'm a poor unemployed college student in the US. However, that photo made me remember those good times we had together.
Although it wasn't clear to me then, my broken pact to be at my best friend's wedding was one of those incidents that I now see as just a pretty lie.
But maybe there's a place for pretty lies in life.
All I know, is that although the slow death of my best friendship was tragic, I wouldn't trade those memories for all the success, fame, or money in the world.
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| Source emitted to protect identity |
