a packet of chips on a cloudless day

It is a rare thing to live a moment that you know is perfect. More often experiences become ideal with the gloss of hindsight, but every now and then all the forces of life and love combine to deliver something beautifully packaged and wonderfully formed, neatly inserted into the chaos of everyday life.

Last weekend I spent three days with three fabulous friends. The excuse was an upcoming wedding of a much-loved couple, the idea was a moment of calm to catch-up and chill out before the big day. It involved 24 hours of travel, a small book of instructions for the left-behind husband (and a large leap of faith). But what an amazing gift to be able to step out of one’s life for a few days, for us all to leave behind partners and babies and to let go of all the strings that route us so firmly in the grown-up lives we have created, so that for a short while we were simply ourselves: four friends, each of us very different, carrying our own challenges and aspirations, but whose lives are woven together by a wealth of shared stories – from seeing each other through relationship disasters to crazy nights on the town, from witnessing babies born to sharing a packet of chips on a cloudless day.

Perhaps it felt perfect because logistically it was unlikely – it a small miracle – but I think it was being with three people who know me so well, who’ve seen all my sides, who share my history. Three people who, God willing, will be giggling alongside me for the rest of my days.