This weekend I attended the Well Read Mom Conference at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul MN. I’m not a mom, nor am I that well read, but I was invited to talk to the participants about one of my favorite subjects, The Lord of the Rings. How could I pass up a chance to talk to a captive audience about Tolkien and Middle Earth? Needless to say, I enjoyed that part of the day immensely. But what was deeply moving was the familiar, yet still surprising experience of intimate friendship I experienced with the people with people I had met just a few hours before. In this “Year of the Friend” for the Well Read Mom, I was reminded of one of my deepest desires by having it piqued by Marcie and Claire and Marcia and Bunny and other women who welcomed me with such sincere friendship during my short visit. What more do I want than a true friend?

I’ve known Marcie for years, and though I don’t see her very often, when I do, she embraces me as if my very existence were necessary for her. She is a woman who never gives up on her heart, or the heart of others. And I learned this weekend that it is this dogged dedication to her need that gave rise to the Well Read Mom experience. Through Marcie’s faithfulness I was able to meet other women, like Marcia and Claire from Texas who shared how their Well Read Mom group has become a place where they can share the daily and the deepest aspects of their lives, their struggles and their friendships through both their education in Fr. Giussani’s charism, and their experiences in light of the novels they read.

After a few hours with these women it was as if I had known them all my life. The conversation at dinner after the conference quickly and organically reached a depth so fulfilling that it was nearly impossible not to recognize the One who bound us together. How can I love my husband in a truer way? What sustains my vocation? What is your story? These were the kinds of things we were asking and telling one another around the table. There were young mothers, college students, women with grandchildren, and women with no biological children there all united in this passion for their own hearts.

While I was waiting for my plane back to L.A., with the echoes of protesters chants in my ears, I put my headphones in and began listening to a TED talk by some casually dressed twenty-something guru who was analyzing the paradox of the growing lack of trust in our society for people and traditional institutions coupled with the growing willingness to trust faceless, technology driven experiences like Uber, Airbnb and Tinder. “Interesting topic” I thought, “but not tough to figure out. I get it. It is difficult to trust people. Technology seems more reliable. In humans, faithfulness is impossible. Friendship doesn’t last. Where do you find love you can count on? Who can you trust?”

But the memory of what had just happened to me was too vibrant for the cynicism that grows like a fungus on experience. Marcie’s faithfulness of heart had generated me and all those women I met this weekend. That had really happened. There was friendship. There was something that spanned generations. There was antidote to distrust; the presence of a Friend. Thank you, Marcie, for the faithfulness to your heart which helps me to trust again.