In memory

I don't usually like to get too "personal" here--for one thing my personal life is WAY boring, and for another a space I set up to brag about my books and obsess on cocktails and Project Runway just doesn't seem the spot for venting about my family's annoyingness or the pitiful state of the dating world these days. :) But yesterday marked the second anniversary of the passing of one of my best friends. I've been thinking about her a lot this week, of course, and wanted to share some of my best memories.

Anne and I met when we were thirteen, and I was in the midst of all the horrors of adolescence. Now, someone who knows you through your teenage years and still wants to be your friend is someone worth hanging onto! We knew each other through high school, college, jobs, boyfriends (mine), weddings (hers), moves, parties, craft projects, and even illness and loss. Anne had a brave and kind heart, and was true to herself and others in a way that we humans seldom are. She was messy, and bossy, and opinionated (not always in ways we could agree on!), and there was never a time she couldn't make me laugh. She loved Star Wars, Italy, red nail polish, Eagles songs, music, and football. She also loved the poetry of Yeats, and this was her favorite:

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings:
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore:
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavement gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.