Dear friend,
This is a rather difficult letter to write. In it I intend to admit that I am not perfect, you are not perfect, and our friendship is not perfect.

Where do I start? We've been friends for how long now? I've lost track of a life pre-you. You've been there when things got tough. When I was down about work, or down without work, or bummed about my broken heart, you were there. And even if you were down about work, or down without work, or bummed with a broken heart of your own, you put up with me. You put up with my wandering rants and my sadness masked as comedy. You stopped me and said, "I'm here if you need me." What did I do to thank you? I insulted you. Granted it probably wasn't an out and out insult, but I injected enough cynicism into my compliment that left you no doubt that I was cutting you as I was praising you. Swell. That's what friends are for?

Somewhere along the line you came to expect my two pronged statements, often calling them refreshing bits of honesty. They were honest, for even strengths and weaknesses have big gray areas. Big gray areas that I frankly think too many people ignore. Yet, it isn't fair. Sometimes praise needs to go unchecked. I need to appreciate you in the moment. You have been a fantastic friend to me. You've been better than I ever deserve and for that I need to ignore the gray areas. Not all the time, because I wouldn't know how, but every so often I need to let you know that I love you. I think the world of you. I can't imagine my life without you. You listen. You care. You keep me in line. I can't thank you enough.

I know we have our disagreements. I know we've struggled with how exactly our lives should fit together, but we're not puzzle pieces. We don't have interlocking sections, we are more like different flavors of ice cream melting together (forgive me, I had Spumoni tonight). Our flavors mix and meld together to make a big tasty treat. Friends like you don't go away. You change me, add to me, make me more me than I could be without you. Like any mixture, sometimes there's too much and others not enough. We're always working on our recipe.

We've been through a lot and there's more to come, but before we go on I just wanted to stop and say again, thank you for being in my life.