Do you have a best friend?

Short answer, no.

Long answer? I used to feel weird / bad that I didn't tend to have JUST ONE best friend, no ride-or-die, "besties since birth" person. I was jealous of people who did! But now I feel grateful to have an ecosystem of close friends, my relationship with each one unique. I have close friends I've known since I was a teenager, and we have a certain bond based in shared history and decades of love. I have close friends who have been with me through extreme life experiences (birth, death, artist residencies) and our bond is formed from sharing sometimes devastating intimacies. I have close friends who I see often, due to physical proximity and our lives coalescing at this moment; I try to appreciate this closeness while it lasts, because I know that things change as lives change. I've lost close friends because of our lives growing apart; sometimes it's ok and sometimes it's horrible. And finally, I fell in love with my partner after realizing he was quickly becoming my best friend, and I have always been so grateful to have that foundation of friendship upon which to build a partnership.

Zoe, this is going to become my favorite daily meditation, I just know it.