I recently stumbled upon these tear inducing quotes:

“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together.. there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. but the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. i'll always be with you.”

These are not quotes from F. Scott to Zelda, nor are they quotes from any other set of lovers.
They are quotes from Winnie the Pooh.

When I was little, I had a Winnie the Pooh doll.
I loved it and took him everywhere. There is photographic evidence of me singing and talking to him.
I fell asleep with him.  I took him outside and threw him into piles of leafs because I thought he'd enjoy it.

There was the fateful day when I suddenly realized Pooh might be hungry and tried to feed him honey.
My mom tried to wash him but he fell apart in the spin cycle.
She presented me with his worn, tattered and detached carcass.  He couldn't be sewn back together and thus was the end of my friend Pooh.

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?”

"Some people care too much, I think it's called love."

My mother advised me from a very early age that I should be sure to marry my best friend.  In fact, I recall her advising me of this on several occasions.

It was a piece of advice that I packed carefully and took into my adulthood with me.
Much like my old Pooh, I carried it around everywhere I went.

And much like my old Pooh, I have found that I have inadvertently worn it out.

Every serious relationship I have ever been in, stemmed from some form of friendship.
Granted for each friend turned lover, there have been many more that remained purely friends.

The trouble with falling for a friend is this: If you start out as friends, it is probably because one of you
don't feel a romantic attraction to the other.

"The more Pooh looked inside, the more Piglet wasn't there."

While there are some cases where friendships successfully blossom into something romantic, there are so many more that do not.

You can find yourself laughing with your friend and get the sudden urge to pull them close and hold them.
You can have a fight with your friend, only to realize at the end of the day it isn't as important as waking up and having another day together.

Isn't that what love is? To be able to laugh and cry and fight and be terribly honest with someone and still want to hold them through the night and do it all over again the next day?

Maybe it is, but you can never have it if the other half of the friendship never feels the same way.

My brain smugly cries "Karma!" as my heart shudders to think of any male friends who's romantic expectations I may have carelessly shot down.  Being on the other side does not feel good.

"Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day."

No matter how much it hurts, there are times when you must be your own best friend and know when it's time to
protect your own heart. You have to respect their feelings and tuck yours aside and either be a friend or step
away completely.  You can not keep up the illusion that one day they will look across the room and suddenly see you in the way that you see them.

In closing, I do not think that my mothers advice was wrong.
I think that I misinterpreted how to go about it.

You can love your best friend and maybe even eventually marry them, but maybe it will be someone that you are first attracted to that turns into a romantic friendship, and not falling in love with someone who only wants to be
your friend.

Piglet sidled up to Pooh. "Pooh," he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you.