Moments that the words don't reach

My heart hurts today.

This weekend, my dear, dear friend Camille Moffatt was in a car wreck and she is in critical condition.

Hearing the news felt like a punch to the gut. I've known Camille for over six years now. We met on a study abroad to Cambridge and I've considered her a dear friend ever since. Hearing about an accident like that is something you don't ever want to hear. Our bodies are so fragile, and pain is very real. I was reminded of that this weekend in a way I didn't want to be reminded. I can't even imagine the pain her family is going through right now.

I know that Camille is strong. She is brave and she is a fighter, and she is in a place to get the best care that she needs, and I pray for her full recovery.

In these moments, I am also reminded of how little I can do. I don't have the expertise, knowledge, or experience to give her medical attention. But what I can do (pray, fast, write her notes of encouragement and deliver decorations to her room), I will do. My hands are small, but they are willing, especially to somehow bless someone who has been so good to me.

And so, just like she has written beautiful blog posts about people she loves (including me), today I thought it would be fitting to share the reasons that I love Camille. Because there are so many reasons.

Camille is one of those bright souls in the world. A person you never forget, and a friend who never forgets you. She is vivacious and stylish and beautiful and funny and brilliant and good. She is good to the core. She is incredibly artistic and brings beauty to the world wherever she goes.

[I feel like this picture is very representative of Camille--just standing out in bold.]

Camille is kind. I still remember the first time that I ever really talked to her--the moment I realized that she was my friend. It was on our study abroad to Cambridge, and I think it was my second day there. I was nineteen years old and terribly, terribly homesick. Our director noticed, and he pulled Camille aside and asked her to talk to me for a bit. She took my hand, smiled, and then had us sit down in the stairwell of the Cambridge Union Building, where I promptly started to cry and cry, blubbering out all of my fears and how I missed my family and how I didn't know if I could even be successful at this program. She just let me talk. She held me and let me talk and told me times in her own life when she was scared and homesick.

In her kindness and vulnerabilty, she gave of her confidence to me. She became my friend. And for that friendship I am so very, very grateful.

Camille is hilarious. She always makes people laugh and she is so good at bringing out a silly side of me that not many people get to see.

[I'm pretty sure we are admiring our legs here. But probably we are all just really admiring Jeff's leg.]

Camille is thoughtful. The letters she wrote me on my mission were always full of light, love, and humor. I often get emails from her or texts from her out-of-the-blue and it is just so nice to know that she takes the time to think of me.

Camille is classy. Just--so classy. I love her sense of fashion, her taste in art, and her taste in food.

[CAMILLE IS A BABE.]

Camille drops everything to help friends in need. When I went out to DC a couple of years ago to do some research, I immediately knew that I was going to ask her if I could stay with her. And even though life was crazy-busy for her at that time, she was so happy to let me stay at her place. Camille is just like that. She makes time for others.

Camille makes others feel like they are the coolest person in the world. Knowing her is the closest thing I have to knowing a rockstar.

[But I'm actually serious about the whole rockstar thing. We are all just happy to be her groupies.]

I am so grateful to have Camille Moffatt as a friend. She inspires confidence in me and in everyone she meets. I know that is true because of the way that friends have reached out to her and collaborated to support her. She is so loved. Our Cambridge Crew has banded together to help her, and I am amazed and awed at how those connections we formed six years ago are still so deep--they still last.

Friendship is deep, and friendship is eternal, I believe. And in these moments that the words don't reach, when there is suffering too terrible to name, we hold onto each other. Sometimes that is all we can do.