anyone can make you smile or cry, but it takes someone special to make you smile when you already have tears in your eyes

This week I received a parcel from Cat in Hong Kong.

She had been working on it for a while

and sent it to me as a nice surprise.

It was full of lovely handmade goodies,

but the thing I loved the most was the handwritten letter that she wrote.

I was touched so much by her words,

because she shared some of her own pain with me.

I felt so honoured to be able to receive her words

and the things that she said meant far more to me

because she was vulnerable with me.

I can't even tell you how much it meant to me,

to be able to hear someone else's pain

and to know about the path that they had walked

and because of this to know they understood where I was at.

I've been thinking about it since I opened the parcel 

and read the letter.

This year I have discovered who are my real friends,

and I have grown to value so much this tight knit circle of precious people.

But Cat in Hong Kong showed me something else,

true friends share not only the good times, the fun times,

but they are able to share the hard times too.

It is not just enough to say... I know how you feel,

it is far more valuable when someone shares with me the journey that they are on

and so that we feel like fellow travellers on the same journey.

When I write, I find it much easier to express how I feel,

but when I'm having a conversation with a friend,

I find that much more difficult.

I'm super grateful to Cat for not only sending me a precious parcel of treasures

but also for sharing her story with me

and thereby teaching me what real friendship is all about.