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There's a girl who's in the same industry that I am and our companies do business together.  Technically we’re competitors who work together, and to make things more interesting, because life is not complicated enough - we‘ve been good friends for many years.   

A typical conversation would look like this -

Me:  "The sky is blue."

Her:  "Hey, what color do you think the sky is?"

Me:  Looks at her like she’s crazy.

Her:  Looks at me like I’m crazy and wonders why I’m not responding to her question [that I already gave the answer to].


And that’s how we existed for several years - thinking the other one was nuts.

She had a mile-marker birthday a couple years ago and I sat down to reflect on our relationship and write something meaningful to mark the occasion.

I thought about this odd union, this pairing of two people speaking the same language but still struggling to communicate with one another.  

When one person was throwing their hands up in resignation, or the other end of the phone went perfectly silent or when one of us said they’d call back later because they were totally annoyed - we somehow always found our way.  We didn’t realize how much we were learning from one another through the trials and frank conversations.  We got better at taking turns with the push-pull that happens in business when things go wrong, and we still managed to socialize together outside of work.

We were the perfect marriage.

And that’s what I wrote in her card.
 

We exercised by running through the forest trails today.  Our conversations were easy and well- understood and she told me we were more alike than I realized.
 

It was at that moment that I knew -  if I asked her what color is the sky was she'd reply, "It's blue.  Why are you asking?"

And I smiled to myself.