What is a friend?

Something sort of strange happened to me last night. I got an email from a friend who needed to talk – if I was available. Doesn’t sound strange right? I mean friends talk all the time. Friends are there when you need to talk. What makes this sort of strange is that this is a friend I’ve known for at least two years, yet we’d never spoken on the phone before. And then, about half an hour into our conversation, I asked her where she lived. As in what state even.

This is someone who emailed me they needed to talk, and I didn’t hesitate to say Yes, yet I had no clue where she lived. I think many people would find that weird. In fact, we laughed about it. That’s being a writer for you. We meet at a conference, occasionally talk through emails, hang out together for a week every year and share intimate details of our lives, connect in a way that good friends do, and yet we’d never talked on the phone, and we had no idea where each other lived, or even in what time zone.

It truly brought home to me that a friend is a person who cares. Someone you can talk to, and who will be honest with you. Last night we talked on the phone for almost three hours, and man…I’m so not normally a phone person, but I really enjoyed talking to her. I hope I helped put her mind at ease about some things, and I know she ended up helping me out with some of my own jumbled thoughts on things.

It made my heart warm to know I had another friend out there, and that I was there for her. After all, thats what friends are right? Someone who’s there for you when you need them.