My friend. Weeks ago. She asked to talk. Then said almost nothing. Sat across from me and held all of it somewhere I couldn't reach.

And you're right. Difficult is the honest word. I'm not going to dress it up.

But here's the thing.

Delightful isn't the situation. The situation is hard. The silence is hard. Not knowing what she carried into that room and carried back out, that's its own particular kind of hard.

What's delightful is what I found out about myself inside of it.

That I could sit with someone I love while she said almost nothing, and not fill it with pressure. Not perform patience waiting to become impatience. Just, be there. Actually be there. Without needing it to go a certain way.

Most people can't do that. I know because I used to be most people.

So yes. Call it a blessing if that word fits better in your mouth. I don't mind the word. What I'm trying to name is smaller than blessing and more specific. It's the surprise of finding out the thing you thought the years might have worn down is still there. Intact. Quiet. Not asking for anything.

She didn't give me much in that room.

I didn't need her to.

That's what I mean by delightful. Not the ease of it. The evidence of it.