Friendship is...

Recently I stayed at a friend's house. I was in town for work, and I arrived in the evening. I asked my if she wanted to go for a run the next morning prior to work. You could tell she didn't really want to go, but she also did want to go, so she agreed.

The next morning she was drinking coffee at a leisurely pace and I told her that we had to start running. She gave me one of those looks that implied she certainly didn't agree, but she put on her shoes.

We took her dog running, and like a dog is wont to do, she stopped to use the bathroom. We picked up the poo and ran it to a trashcan.

We reached a very nice overlook, and my friend suggested we turn back.

"We can't. We have to run for sixteen minutes," I said.

She nearly tripped. "What? How far are we running?" She looked at her smart watch.

I have a no-frills Timex which I bought years ago and only occasionally keeps the correct date.

"I have no idea. But I want to run for half an hour, but since we had to stop for dog poop, we have to run another minute."

Her jaw unhinged. Finally, she managed, "Okay? But you realize that makes zero sense?"

"Look," I said, "I need to run out this energy. Give me these 31 minutes."

We could have, in that moment, talked about generalized anxiety, childhood trauma, spheres of control, coping mechanisms, or whatever, but instead she just nodded and we kept running.

The rest of the day went fine. The next day I woke up and I asked if she wanted to run.

"No, you should take the dog. I'll make you eggs and coffee for when you return."

So me and the dog ran, and we had to run an extra minute since she had to poop, which is not logical, but was what we did. And when we got back, my wonderful friend made me eggs and coffee.

And I think these are the kinds moments when friendship is on full display. When I wake up, I go battle it out with some morning workout with made up rules so that the rest of the day is just a little less sharp. And instead of taking a deep dive into whatever is behind this, my friend simply left me to it and made me food and coffee for my return.

It's the quiet moments that make me the most thankful.