When Friendships Find Their Way

Some friendships unfold with a kind of quiet magic.

Long before I knew Dave, he and Rose worked side by side. Their friendship stretched back decades, and when Dave introduced me to her, it was like being folded into a circle that had always been there. Rose and I found our own rhythm, our own closeness — sealed in the most ordinary and extraordinary way: we were both expecting.

She was just a few weeks ahead of me, and I still remember dashing through Babies “R” Us, registry list in hand, copying hers because I didn’t know where to start. Soon enough, our boys arrived — Will first, RJ following close behind.

What we didn’t know then was that our children’s lives would braid together in the same easy way ours had. By chance, our families ended up living just ten minutes apart. And though the boys never went to the same school, never played on the same teams, and never shared a crowd of mutual friends, they found each other.

Without prompting, without hesitation, when asked who their best friend was, both would name the other. Always, the same answer.

There have been countless moments — dinners, playdates, simple afternoons — where our families intertwined. Watching Will and RJ grow up side by side, in their own worlds yet still tethered to one another, has been its own quiet gift.

It reminds me that sometimes the most lasting connections don’t come from careful planning or shared routines, but from a kind of gravitational pull. Something that just is.