Thursday, December 30, 2010

Faces of Friendship

Time off creates time to be in touch with friends. Time with friends means time to reflect on friendship. It is another one of those things that moves through time, evolving and changing. Age, location, circumstance....each an energy that creates the change. There are also shades and levels of friendship. An ebb and flow also create a natural flow between the shades and levels.
I wish I was one of the lucky people who hung on to their childhood friendships. I wish I could have held the strings tight and continued the whispering of secrets, experiencing firsts together, spinning in the love/hate relationship only a child can deal with, and lighting up every day when they entered my presence. I don't think anything comes close to those first friendships. I let go...I let time steal it away. So now once in a while I get a friend request, an email....but it is gone. Too long, too much valley between us. It is a quick catch up, and then nothing.
The highschool friendships..ha! I poisoned those in the moment with the selfishness of my own teen world.
Which brings me to my friendships as an adult. Each so different, even purposeful, so driven by who I am and where I am. The ones that matter, that keep me afloat, those are binding. Days and months go by, and we pick up the phone or meet for breakfast, and we pick up where we left off. It changes over time, but it is easy. There is no work, no effort....just this love between us and we know we'd do anything for that person. We always talk of the past, always remember where we have been and always wish we were more present in each other's life now. But we are seperated by circumstance, space and situation. So we revel in what we get.
They say friends come and go...I don't think so. I think they just follow the current of our lives. They come in with the tides, and refresh us and we see and welcome them each time. But even when they are out on the horizon, we are aware of their presence and wait for the tide to bring them back.