Make New Friends, But Keep the Old



Three cheers for old friends!


We survived Arkansas!  And we were not (as far as we know) visited by any angry spirits.

Hurray for no hauntings! (Although I did get a little queasy when walking past a certain area of the house where my friend and her husband cleaned up a MYSTERIOUS BROWN STAIN.  But I would like for you to know that I did not, at any point, scream or pass out.  GO ME!)

We stayed, as you will recall, at the vacation home of a friend of mine.  She was, in fact, my very best friend growing up.  We did everything together.  And I thought we always would.  At the point when we graduated from high school, the idea of going months (sometimes even years) without seeing each other was unimaginable.

But then life happened.

She went off to school in an other state.  Then she graduated from college and got a Real Job in yet another state.  And as things do, we grew apart.  Not for any discernible reason.  We just got busy with life.  You know how it goes.

And so staying with her this weekend felt so foreign (I barely know her husband or her child), and yet so familiar.  It's funny how easily you can fall back into a groove with someone.  A half hour into our stay I felt like no time had passed. 

Except.

She's a grown-up now.  A wife.  A mother. 
 

My friend's son.  Would you please look at that dimple? I DIE!

And although I've grown quite accustomed to MYSELF in these roles, it was strange for me to see HER operating as a wife and mother.  Because, in my mind, she's still in high school.  Seventeen years old.  Just a baby herself.

I suppose, in the last 20 years, she's been getting older too.  It's funny how that happens.