I don’t mean the longing to find a lost love or rekindle a romance. “Desire” may be the best word for those situations. I’m talking about a longing for an unmet need for understanding, acceptance and redemption.

<3>The Perfect Storm of Friendship

Several years ago, a very close friendship went awry through what another friend called, “the perfect storm of friendship.” She hit the nail on the head. Death and new life, financial pressure, misunderstanding, lack of awareness and pride came together and changed the hum of our daily lives.

Where most weekends and weekday evenings would be spent together, planning our future adventures, laughing at our past, there was nothing but the emptiness of our separate lives.

Our boating misadventures, home improvement follies, dining and culinary quests, entrepreneurial visions and personal conversations came to a screeching halt. Years of rolling through life together disappeared. The hole it left in my heart was huge and it hurt beyond belief.

Months passed. Weeks passed. Years passed.

I never moved beyond asking myself, “what happened?” And every time my conscience raised the red flag of guilt, pride and fear of rejection kept me from picking up the phone and calling my best friend even though everyday I wondered, “is she alright?”

The irony of pride is that while we wear it like a suit of armor, it crushes us from within. And it takes a friend or two, long lost, to return and save us from the dark side of ourselves.

Making amends, forgiving and being forgiven, is a gift of Love. It unburdens our heart, buoys our spirit and makes us whole again; it unshackles us from our fears and transforms us.

The Summer of 2009 is my Summer of Love and Redemption. Friends returned. And that torturous armor of pride dissolved in the presence of understanding, redemption and acceptance. I am reborn in my old skin and it is nothing less than a spiritual blessing.