A letter to friends on Valentines day...

Dear Friends,

It is 10:38 in the evening and as the mild winter wind sweeps over the flat landscape where I now reside, I realize that only a mere two hours stands between me and the day all singles have grown to loathe. I have spent the last week unpacking my soul from cardboard boxes- finding new homes for all of the worldly possessions that have accumulated over the last 24 years. Two weeks ago I once again left behind walls that have within them a testimony to who I am and the company I keep. In all of my many moves, however, I have carried you with me. You... my dear friends... live in and out of photographs, mix CD's, and decorated boxes. In preparing for this most recent relocation, I found myself sifting through the sands of time and rediscovering the good old days through anticipation of the new ones. I spent hours on my knees cleaning the corners of my past in order to dirty the corners of my future, and I found myself listening to such things as Simon and Garfunkle, Indigo Girls, Savage Garden, loud rad 80's rock ballads, and the Dawson's Creek Soundtrack volumes one and two. I found pictures of us at 20, some of us at 15, some even younger, and some recent. I found pictures from formals, from the awkward stage, from the yearbook with our heads meticulously tilted at just the perfect angle- photographs from years past permanently etching a page in my history that I will never overlook. I found your letters and re-read your words. Somehow, I know you meant every word when you wrote them... I only hope I am able to hear them again. My hands fell over the small trinkets and gifts I have received as I placed them on bookshelves and endtables. Things I was given as gifts and things I kept simply because they reminded me of you. Finding new homes for small pieces of things that once were, allowed me to once again touch a piece of time that no longer exists. Something that is only to be found again in closeted shoe-boxes after the corners of my room have been dirtied.

For the little bits of everything that you have contributed to my life- and for all the contributions yet to be made... I thank you. To those old and new- to relationships lost and relationships recovered-TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS- I love you. I love you for being who you are and for sharing a piece of yourself with me. You have given of yourself and in the process made my life overwhelmingly full- and I am grateful...

Forever,
Tempa