And Out of the Fog of Memories Steps an Old Friend

Life surprises me. Often. Sometimes it's even in a good way.

Yesterday I had a hard time getting focused on the writing I wanted to work on. Some days it's hard for me to quiet all the thoughts running around in my mind and put in the hours on the hard stuff.

Sometimes, it just means I need time and space and quiet to think. Usually it means I need to be paying attention to the thoughts that come to mind.

I was thinking about some of my friends. I was struck at the odd ways we met and how we became friends, so extraordinary and out of my normal. I sat wondering what our friendships will look like in 10 years and 25 years and will they even continue on to 40 or 50 years and what will it all be like then.

In a way, it's easy to think about friends when you're in your high school or college years. It's not too hard in the 20 something years to have those friend circles and feel their importance and significance and never really look past the moment into the future and wonder.

Those moments of thought brought my mind back in time and a name popped into my head.

I'm impulsive. I stuck that name in Facebook and waited the 3 seconds or whatever it takes and the human mind is fast. In those moments, I wondered what I would find, if anything. I thought I'd take a quick look and move on.

Surprise.

My person popped up. A clear crisp photo that instantly made me smile and laugh out loud. It seems that even though it's been years; perhaps even double digit years since we last talked or saw each other, our lives didn't take paths that were all that different.

That single photograph showed we still have huge things in common. Life living love things.

A short message became a day of texting.

Our conversation picked up easily. All the familiar ease we had years and years ago was still right there. The trust we built and grew was still there.

What a gift. A true gift. To have an old friend pop back in out of the past, out of the stuff that is foggy memories and have it be like it was or maybe even better is a gift.

And I am grateful.