The River Green

You know how when you look back at a particularly momentous occasion in your life, you can remember the main details very vividly, but the surrounding details are a little fuzzy? I've been having a few of those moments for most of the week.

I'm not one to leave any details out, so I thought I might record the 'fuzziness' for future reference.

I think it was Monday of this week that I found an old friend on Facebook who I lost touch with several years ago. That I found this friend is the momentous occasion. The fuzzy comes with the emotions I experienced when I got her first set of updates and saw how her life changed. It is exciting... it's like looking at an old photo album and hearing the stories that go between what this person or that house looked like then and what it looks like now. Even though I saw all these pictures on her profile, in this particular case, a word is worth a thousand pictures. Who, after all, carries their camera around and takes a picture at each and every moment of life? Pictures are good for some things, new things, maybe. But it cannot capture the emotion that can be expressed in a conversation of how the changes occurred- weather by email or even a simple wall-to-wall update. I can't wait to hear more.

The other momentous occasion is that one of our closest friends looks to be starting out on a new relationship and it looks pretty serious. That she is starting a relationship is the momentous part. The fuzzy seems to be how happy Marieke and I are that she is happy. I mean seriously happy. For the first time in a very, very long time, she is grinning and we are grinning right back at her. She is grinning so much that her cheeks are revealing the rare and hidden double dimples. We are also finding the occasion to revisit some of the feelings we had when we first started our relationship. It is very exciting and we are so happy that she is happy. Another fuzzy is that we got a virtual play-by-play via text during the evening while we were at work. We did so little work while we were texting. But that's ok... work owed us a few and we took one tonight. So now work only owes us a couple.

The fates, it appears, have chosen to give us a reason to only observe, but not obsess, over the impending unpleasant anniversary through the happiness of, and re-connection to, our friends. That is the best kind of reason I could imagine and I am actually spending this week being happy instead of being sad. It is a privilege and I am grateful to have the opportunity to dwell on happy things this week.

So, to friends and friendships. We gain so much from them and realize it so little.

Labels: friends