Waaahhh! A little over a year and a half ago ago I gained a best friend, Lisa Twining Taylor. We met because she needed a copywriter, so at first our association was business-related. She wanted to start networking here in western Washington (which is where she’s from originally) so she came over and stayed a few weeks to get the ball rolling, then she went back to Okanagan County for a while.
She returned in late April or early May last year to launch a business in Tacoma and I invited her to stay at my place until she got her feet under her because by then we were thick as thieves and I knew we’d get along great.
Still, as an introvert, it was a little scary to consider inviting Lisa into my space for an indefinite period of time. But by the time I made the offer I knew it could work. She, too, is an introvert and insanely creative, so she likes having her own space, too. Plus we’re both cat and goat fanatics, so we hit it off better than most sisters do! We engaged when we wanted or needed to and worked independently and ignored each other when we needed our space. (It felt fine because we both “got” it. No hard feelings. Two peas in a pod.)
Well, I’m glad to say she has her feet under her now but I’m sad to say I’m going to be losing a housemate after tonight. She’ll only be about a mile away, where she’s going to live, but it’s a lot farther away than my TV/living room, where she’s been living, and so it feels too far away. We’ve shared my office all this time and it’s going to feel mighty big and lonesome in here for a while.
Although I will miss having her here, I’m feeling blessed for the year we were able to spend as “roomies”. We’re each other’s biggest advocate because each of us has seen how hard the other has worked to get where we are, and we have first-hand knowledge of the challenges each of us has faced this past year (mostly money-related because the business environment remains fickle due to the sluggish economy). We’ve seen each other at our best and at our worst and we still think the world of each other and that each other is the best at what we do for a living: in her case, building websites; in mine, stringing words together.
There are times in life when you find someone who is so much like you that you can almost finish the other’s sentences (and sometimes do). This is the case with Lisa. We’re as different as night and day in a lot of ways but in all of the ways that truly count, we’re kindred spirits. Beneath our various life-long hurts and pains, trials and tribulations, our essences have survived intact and I think that’s what we recognize most strongly in the other: we’re both survivors and we keep reminding each other that it’s never too late to grab the brass ring and win our niches. We have each other’s back. We refer and recommend each other as easily as we breathe in and out.
I’m proud to be Lisa’s friend and blessed to be one of her power partners. You should be, too. Get to know her better. She is amazing the socks off the people she is serving as a web designer, and she is blessing the socks off the people who call her friend.
