I wrote a poem for my best friend for her 30th birthday this year and wanted to share it with you in case you wanted to share it with “your person.”

“I believe there are no random meetings in our lives—that everyone we touch, who touches us, has been put in our path for a reason. The briefest encounter can open a door, or heal a wound, or close a circle that was started long before your birth.” — Susanna Kearsley, Every Secret Thing

This is why I love my best friend: She's the kind of person who walks into the room and says, “Here we are!”

I know how blessed I am to have this kind of a friend, one who hears and sees; not everyone has that. Best friendship is a blessing. I do think, though, that no matter how old we get, there's always room for that kind of real connection.

Beautiful people don’t just exist—they are everywhere. You never know when you’ll run into someone who makes you remember what love really means.

If every relationship was first grounded in friendship, the world would be a brighter place.

In honor of the girl who has heard and seen me through the hardest, darkest moments of my life, who's helped me become a friend to myself, this poem. A "thank you." An "I love you."

And if you want to celebrate your person with poetry, go visit my shop for prints of handwritten poems and other words of hope and heart. Your BFF will love it.

A Poem for My Best Friend

Sitting here, no words seem right because

I’m trying to bottle into words

What you’ve meant to me in

All these seasons of my life.

You have been every color and shade of

Friendship,

Every kind of medicine for a soul.

Your heart has helped mine to remember

How to be whole.

When I thought it was the end,

You helped me figure out

How to start again.

Let me tell you who you are

To someone who loves

Everything you are:

You are Grace embodied, and

Even if you have tears in your eyes,

Dear friend,

Grace would look like you.

Even when you forget who you are,

I know your truth, and

If you asked me how I knew,

I’d have tears in my eyes

Trying to bottle into words

Everything you’ve given and

Everything you’ve been.

My friend,

If I were to offer one word to describe you,

There is no hesitation and only affirmation:

Love.

Above all else,

You are love without end —

The kind that sometimes shows up as Grace

On an old friend’s doorstep,

The kind with no conditions that walks in

For tea but leaves you with so much more.

The only kind of love that really exists:

This is what you’ve been to me, and

If you ever forget your name,

Just ask me:

I would know.

. . .

Tell me:

Which part of this poem is your favorite?

Tell me in the comments. I read every single one, and I’d love to know!

Be someone who reminds someone else what love really means.

With love,

Jen