There’s something about our friendship that reminds me of the word “eudaimonia” - not just happiness, but flourishing. We met through the strange alchemy of social media at HTN 2021, and like Montaigne wrote of his dear friend, “we sought one another long before we met.” Our conversations pick up as if they never paused, flowing across time zones and platforms, perhaps because we both inhabit this digital world with a certain earnestness.
What strikes me most is how our relationship embodies what Adrienne Maree Brown described - like a spiderweb, both delicate and resilient. “A web allows things to fall through, like a sieve,” she said. “Some things are not meant to be caught.” Yet what our web catches feels essential: those moments of genuine connection, the shared appreciation for craft and dedication, the quiet pride in watching each other grow from afar.
I love seeing you find your rhythm in Toronto, the way the city has wrapped itself around you like a second skin. Even though we didn’t win at New, it revealed something I’ve always known about you - this remarkable ability to pour yourself into creating something meaningful.
Modern life fragments us, scatters us across cities and different events/timezones 😄. Yet somehow, every time we reconnect, there’s this sense of immediacy, of presence. Similar to what Ava wrote about - that minimum viable friendship that actually sustains itself through time, that doesn’t require grand gestures but thrives on authentic moments of connection.
Here’s to another year of our web-like friendship, catching what matters, letting go of what doesn’t. May 2025 find you not just well, but truly flourishing.