Endings.

One of the things I am thankful for during this time on my own is more time alone with good friends. It's not that I didn't have that before, it's just there's more of it- for a variety of reasons I am sure, but it feels like a gift. For the past year and half, I've had a monthly dinner and movie date at my place with Tamara, friend and business partner in Petite Soirees. We often shared meals, classes, wine tasting and other social events together over the years in our friendship, but this time each month is just the two of us. In many ways, I feel so much closer to her and for that I am thankful. It's also interesting, and amazing, how major life changes shape both yourself and the relationships in your life.

Each year around the end of the year, we'd plan a dinner out to celebrate the our accomplishments in our business and chat a little about the coming year. This past year we made the decision to close our business. It was a bittersweet decision- I loved owning a business and sharing that with such a good friend. I was afraid that ending our business would somehow erode our friendship or time together, but I think we're both equally committed to maintaining our bond. But we both felt that maybe the business had run its course, and it was time for us both to focus on other things. Then came the evening we had to divide up our shared inventory; I felt as if I were going through another divorce. Who gets what, and each leaving with less than we had. However melancholy the mood that evening, it didn't at all compare to the dividing of goods of my life. As I said-bittersweet.

And so I'm left feeling like another relationship has ended. It has, but only in one small sense. I look back at the last six years of sharing a business with Tamara and am thankful- for her many talents, great humor, generous heart, insane creativity, friendship, loyalty and teamwork. And with endings always come new beginnings..