When Bestfriend Turns to Love

You entered my life like a gentle sigh, like a quiet breeze blowing softly through the leaves.
You were a stranger first, one who laughed freely and easily, who spoke of minor intimacies and common grounds, who made me feel strangely liked and valued.
You became my friend, no longer a stranger, trusting me with secrets hidden, confiding what you liked and hated.
We talked and laughed and, as time passed by, I grew more and more dependent upon your smile.
From strangers to friends was just a baby step, a step a thousand others take every day.
Without your trust and trusting ways, without your smiles and encouraging gaze,
I would never have taken the step beyond but the gentle breeze blowing through the leaves is relentless and never ending.
We became closer friends, and closer still, until much of my life was centered around the times we spent together.
We traveled far along the path of friendship, avoiding the bumps somehow, never stumbling, always in step with one another.
You were my guide, my eyes and ears, the unfailing light that lit the road before us.
Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, you brought me along our course, to a destination I had never seen before.
You became my best friend along that journey, the anchor in my life where none had ever been.
You did a good job of guiding our steps, a job no other could ever do, and it wasn't your fault, really, when I stumbled.
Somewhere along our path, perhaps where the heights were making me dizzy with joy,
I simply lost my balance and fell.
By the grace of God, I fell not to either side, nor to the rear, but fell instead forward, along the path we'd tread.
My plunge forward was unguided and my steps were steps you never intended.
I fell in love with you.
From strangers, to friends, to close friends, to best friends.
And beyond.
I've never been sorry for any step we've taken together,
No, not even for the fall I took alone.
I never knew, before knowing you, how empty my life had been.
I