My heart is full

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s late, it’s early and I’ve just gotten home from my 45th birthday party. I smell of wood smoke from a charming fire pit (some designer, please bottle this scent just for me) and I am humbled.
For I have friends. True. Friends.
It is like a surprise, this feeling I have. Like I don’t really deserve the events of the evening, which unfolded so lusciously as to catch a breath in your chest until it hurts, aches and sends sweat clammy upon your chest.
I try and find the words for what I feel, and I can only come up with platitudes.
I am blessed.
And sitting in a room full of people who love me for who I am, teasing and joking and winking, makes me want to be the man I want to be. Loyal to a fault. Joyous song in my heart. Humbled beyond humble when the arms reach around, the breath hot in my ear and that person wishes the best of the best for me.
I did not cry then, but I do now.
My heart is full.
Thank you, one and all, for making one hell of an evening happen.