i really want to make the effort to be closer to my friends. ...my old friends. you know, the ones that you couldn't seem to live without when you were 10 and the whole world revolved around saturday plans, sleepovers and playing. and how annoying big brothers and big sisters could be and if you were going to walk or ride your bike to school?







the same friends that in high school knew who your crushes were and the code names that you had given them. the ones that ended up being your maid of honor as you walked down the aisle to being a grown up... yeah, those friends.







the ones that you seem to have let go of .... keeping in touch once a year with christmas cards that mark the growth of their children. and time ... and schedules .... and life marches on.







i was thinking about that today because i had to go the funeral of my old friend's father. i drove the hour and a half back to my hometown and sat two pews behind her and her family. i sat there and noticed the grey that was now sprinkled through her wavy black hair, her shoulders small as her husband sat with his arm around her. i watched her two grown daughters stand and gracefully eulogize a grandfather that they so clearly adored. after the service as she walked up and we hugged i saw that her face, etched in grief, had aged with delicate wrinkles that kept tally of the joys and sorrows she had lived. but through it all i still saw her just how i met her in second grade, curly black hair, a big gap between her front teeth, and a small little pixie face. i was the funny brash one and she was the cute sweet one. but together we were perfect friends.











'You can't stay in your corner of the forest, waiting for others to come to you; you have to go to them sometimes."


Winnie the Pooh