The Five Most Significant Friends in my Life

Time and distance has got nothing on them.

 

Charis Peich
Time I’ve known her: 10 years, 1 month (January 2001)
Current distance: approx. 2,356 miles

Out of the five mentioned here, I’ve known this person the longest. There comes a point where knowing someone for too long becomes a bad thing, and that’s right around the 9 year mark, because there is just no fooling her anymore. she sees right through me, and it’s embarrassing, hilarious, and refreshing at the same time. our friendship consists of sarcasm, deep conversations, and long talks about… well, everything. and i mean everything. we only started getting close my junior year, which was the year I had 6 classes a day with her. that turned out to be an immense blessing, because the friendship I had formed with her has now blossomed into one of the most important ones I have. we don’t talk often, but when we do.. well, we get kicked out of restaurants because we chat for so long. heck, we even go to Starbucks to continue talking, and we get kicked out of there too. and still the conversation continues. i have confided in her so much; i trust her advice, appreciate her critiques, and value her insights. she is actually a real sweetheart and a refreshing joy to be around. she has such a keen eye for art and fashion, and it shows when you talk to her. I love the realness she brings out in me, and dull moments with her are non-existent, as there’s so much humor to be said as we rag on life and comment on its absurdities. she has been the person I notify whenever there’s really good news, and the person I love to call when I need to process something in life, from things like not being independent to dealing with the guilt of eating fast food. truth be told, she knows me well and she is one of the few whom I allow free reign to peer into my life and all the triumphs and struggles contained herein. I am unbelievably grateful that I am friends with an extremely gorgeous soul, and I thank God that we are able to have such a great time touching base whenever we get the chance.

John Paul Fukumae
Time I’ve known him: 8 years, 5 months (September 2002)
Current distance: approx. 2,390 miles

This dude, this guy, this friend.. he’s my mirror. Time and time again, we have gone through eerily similar experiences at roughly the same time. our girl problems were the same. our ways of processing life are the same. our haircuts, at one point in time, were the same. our relationship has gone through ups and downs throughout the years, but through the fighting a love has blossomed and has bonded us for pretty much life. this man has been an inspiration and an encouragement more than he knows, and I am so proud and so much more thankful that this man is in my life. the way he loves and appreciates his friends so unconditionally and authentically is so admirable, and I try to incorporate his example and views on life into my own. I can confide in him, bounce ideas off of him, and, most importantly, be myself. i trust him like no other, and i am so excited to be sharing my future with him. currently the plan is to live in california together, create music and perform shows, and co-author a kick-ass inspirational book derived from content from our xanga, myspace, and tumblrs. come to think of it, these are actually of his ideas, but one can see how motivated and inclusive of a friend he is. he simply loves to create joy and invite people to share in the ride. i cannot think of any other friend who does that, who essentially lays down his time, effort, his life, for the people he cares about. and for me to be considered one of his friends? that is a pure blessing. i have taken him for granted too many times and am determined to be a friend to him to the best of my ability. his love and rebukes have tempered and refined me into the person I am today, and I am indebted to him. he is a bro among bros, and I thank God that I have a friendship with this man.

Nicole Dennis
Time I’ve known her: 2 years, 5 months (September 2008)
Current distance: approx. 2,433 miles

This beautiful, beautiful, beautiful kindred soul is my international bestie, my sister, and my beloved. We met in Switzerland, and bonded immensely as we both went through by far one of the toughest seasons in our lives. I do not know where I would be without her, and our relationship is nothing but positive and loving. She gives spot-on advice, and delivers it in such a graceful, eloquent, and humble way that always brings me face-to-face with the most timely and relevant of epiphanies. She makes me feel loved, unique, wanted, comforted, and remembered, and I am thankful for her everyday that she is my friend. We write to and Skype with each other regularly, and it is her prayers, her inspiring strength, and her gift of simply ‘being there’ that reminds me that there is a God and that He is loving. Despite the fact that I’ve known her the shortest out of the five, she knows me really really well, and while we have only spent two short short months together, the impact she has left continues to be a source of sadness and joy — sadness that I haven’t hugged her in so long, and joy that our paths have crossed path in the first place. she has gone through trials that any other person would crumble under, but the amount of strength she has is unfathomable, and the elegance by which she handles herself through it is a testament to the glory, grace, and sheer love of God. She is a continual blessing that represents the very best of what a friend is and can be, and I am consistently floored when I ponder and appreciate the brevity of our time spent together relative to the strength of our relationship now. And I am so very thankful for this relationship, the depth of which I cannot express adequately enough. I cannot thank God enough for the wonderful orchestration he had set in place over two years ago to create this masterpiece of a friendship.

Noah Jimenez
Time I’ve known him: 7 years, 6 months (August 2003)
Current distance: approx. 2,393 miles

This man of God has been a loving  brother to me, and his friendship is something I love and treasure dearly. Though I’ve known him for awhile, we never really did start getting close until the summer before going to college. I don’t even remember how we started hanging out, but I’m glad it happened. from learning the guitar together and playing friday night worship, to eating plain double cheeseburgers with honey mustard, from playing hours of guitar hero to spending hours just talking and ‘folks-ing,’ this mang has been there with me and for me, by my side, as I become a better musician, process life and grow in God. we never run out of things to talk about and I am always content just being around him. we have the same video game and music interests, he gets my humor, and he enables me to be myself, even when it means me saying doing weird and wacky things, and he never loves me any less for it. he has encouraged me to be honest and has been there by my side as I struggle with loneliness here in California. if I ever started a band, he would be my go-to guitarist and I would definitely bring him alone for that ride. He is a joy to be around, a kind and real soul, and one of the greatest friends I could ever ask for.

Summer Nakamura
Time I’ve known her: 6 years (February 2005)
Current distance: approx. 2,390 miles

Together, we have invented all kinds of symbols that make up the entirety of the unspoken language we communicate to each other. Our texts seldom say more than that, and often it is enough. She is my best friend, my favorite person in the world, and, oddly enough, the one I communicate with the least. The times that I am with her, though, are the moments I treasure the most by far, and I reflect on them with a tender heart and a poignant longing. our relationship has been a marvelously unique tapestry, consisting of bursts of closeness and long periods of avoidance, infatuation and hostility (on my part), from severe awkwardness to the eventual blossoming of a blessed and platonic friendship that I would never jeopardize nor trade for anything in the world. and I mean anything. her loving soul and walk with God have been such an inspiration to behold that she was actually the primary catalyst for the relationship with God I have today. she told me that I needed to want God and want him badly enough to pursue Him and fight for it. and it has been advice that has changed my life forever. God loves to use her to provide timely encouragement and support to let me know that I’m not alone, and that I am missed, loved, and remembered. in fact, one of the scriptures she sent me has been my iPhone wallpaper since arriving in California, and also a message of encouragement she sent to me since June 2010 is still on my desktop. i have kept all the notes and trinkets she has given me, and their worth to me is profound. seriously, if she knew how many times she has made my day with a simple text… perhaps the lack of frequent communication is the reason why the times we do catch up, the times when we are together, are so treasured and special; she’s why I am so excited to fly home and so bummed to go back to California. nonetheless, this woman brings out the very best in me, she encourages me to be the best I can be, and I love her for that. I know that I can rely on her and our friendship to overcome anything. She continues to be an inspiration who produces only the best fruits that God would be proud of, and if everyone loved God and loved others the way she does, no doubt this world would be saved and in a better place. She is sheer beauty inside and out, and I am so proud of her and equally as grateful that she is in my life.

The Dream.

Since middle school/high school, I’ve had this recurring dream:

The scene occurs at dawn, when the morning sunlight pours into a white bedroom, illuminating the entire area with a golden yellow hue. In bed is me and a woman who’s face is, for lack of better descriptive terms, blank. She is a template, if you will. Two children burst through our bedroom door and crawl underneath the blankets, popping up between us, and our family shares an embrace.

Cue the “awwwww.” If you’ve seen the ending scene to the movie, “Sex and Death 101,”  it’s pretty much the exact scenario in my dream.

It’s a pretty generic one with common thematic elements, sure.. but it’s vivid and important to me nonetheless. Seldom do I have this dream when I am in a relationship with someone, but when I do it is usually a girlfriend or love interest that is the woman in bed with me (presumably my wife).

On the evening of Thursday, January 27th, 2011, I had this dream again. She was without a face, but she had dark hair (she is usually blonde in past archetypes). That’s as far as I’ll go in terms of detail. However, for the first time ever the dream continued into a night scene, where I was alone on a pier overlooking a lake just after sundown. The sky was a dark blue, but the color was almost like sapphire. And I saw stars. Millions and millions of stars. It was as if I could see every single star in existence, and it glittered the sky with a distinct and crisp intensity. I saw faint white shooting stars in the distance, and they were occurring only in one tiny area, but the amount of detail I could see was so vivid and clear. (I have recently reawakened my affinity for stargazing. It is a redemptive and intimate experience.)

But in the losing of myself in the wonderment of the night sky, I failed to realize that somebody was with me on this pier. It was a woman. But before I could focus on her face, the sky suddenly turned black (like a normal sky) and I lost all the light available to me.

What this all means, I have no clue. But I loved it. I love that dream. It makes me excited to go back to sleep the next night. Which works out perfectly because I need better sleeping habits.

==x

Tonight I saw the largest and longest shooting star I have ever seen. It streaked across the sky for two seconds (which is pretty long), and it had a bright orange tail. Then it disappeared leaving behind a faint orange cloud.

I made a wish, I shed a tear. What a spectacular way to end an intimate conversation with my Creator. There are no coincidences with God. He’s the author, after all.

 

There are two I’s in friendship.

 

This weekend I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to meet new people at NAMM, and, whether by choice or by chance, get in touch with old friends. There was a lot of greetings and keeping in touch, all wrapped up in one amazing weekend.

This post is about friends. My friends. Well, and I suppose your friends too.

When I look at the people I know, and who are a part of my life, I am astounded by the uniqueness of each one. Not just who they are as a person, but how the actual relationship is.

I have a friend that I can text all the time about random things in the day.
I have a friend where the conversations are always involve the deep philosophical quandaries of life.
I have a friend with whom I do nothing but have racist quips with.
I have a friend where we talk about God all the time and it’s amazing.
I have a friend where all we do is have fun and get into trouble.
I have a friend that I rarely talk to, but when we do it goes on for over five hours every time.
I have a friend who is just a completely positive influence and the person I go to whenever I need advice or just an ear to hear me process what I’m going through.
I have a friend that I miss very much, all the time.
I have a friend who literally goes through the same things I do at the same time.

They are all important to me, and they’re friendship is valued precisely and uniquely because of it.

That being said, expectations in these friendships get in the way.

I hadn’t realized it, but there were some times when I wished that a friendship with one person would resemble more like a friendship with someone else. Like, perhaps the texting aspect with a friend I rarely talk to, or to the one I miss all the time. But then.. it would change the friendship. It would alter that uniqueness. It may sound stupid, but I know you yourself have had friendships with people that are defined in very specific ways, and you just don’t do things with them that you’d do with others for some tacit and unexplainable reason.

I used to be the one who always wanted to change those things, who believed in my own power to change things for my gain. I did that, and it ruined some really great relationships. I ought to just be thankful that I have these bonds, and that they are what they are. I should just “be,”  and be content in that. They are God-given, they are unique. They are wonderful.

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Friend.

The word is very undervalued, I feel. It shouldn’t be. It’s a beautiful thing to call someone friend. And recently, I’ve come to respect its significance. Actually, I think it has more value than “dear” or “darling” or even “bro” or “sis” or “homie.”

To me, anyway.

I am.. unbelievably blessed. And immeasurably thankful for the people I can call friends in my life. I believe it to be the highest term of endearment for a platonic relationship. Plus, not many people say, “hello, friend” to each other.. and in a world where it is rarely used to address others, there’s a novelty factor in it too.

My friends mean the world to me. And I’m going to do better at letting them know it.

Most importantly, I am a friend of God. And He calls me friend.

 

Encouraged.

I was speaking to a friend tonight.. he told me that he’s been getting so much out of my blogs, particularly my Drawing Deeper series. He spoke very kind words about how it made him cry, and really start trying to get his relationship with God stronger, how this should be more public, and that more people should be reading it… and it felt really good to get that kind of feedback.

Now, let it be known that I don’t look for any recognition when I write these things. They’re mainly for me anyway. It’s how I process what God is doing in my life. But like anybody who produces work they are proud of, there is a subtle dream that exists in my heart that hopes that people will read what I have to say. That’s normal to wish, right? I don’t know… a love language of mine is Verbal Affirmation, so maybe that’s why I’m particularly touched when people take the time to just tell me that I’m important. That I am understood. That my work matters to them, no matter how small the impact.

I think… everybody needs to feel that every once in awhile.

Thank you, dear reader.. you are a true encouragement. God bless you, brother!

[Shameless plug: You can read my Drawing Deeper series here]