Old Friends

Sometimes that blue sky peaks between the rain clouds when you least expect it. Then suddenly, you are starring a gift horse in the mouth and the sun is shining all over the place! My blue sky thru the rain clouds came in the form of an old friend. Someone I'd thought about occasionally, but never made any effort to contact for over 30 years. We were best friends in early grade school, shared a lot of common interests and an unfortunately common, dysfunctional home life. We were together every day for years and I remember crying so hard when he left I felt I would die...like a part of me had been physically removed. I'd never experienced a loss like it before and I hoped never to feel that again.

There was so much about him that I remember missing...his quiet acceptance of me--in any mood, in any circumstance, at any time, it didn't matter. His eyes were kind and soft and always admiring and supportive. The easy way we laughed together, at nothing in particular even, just being there together...laughing. Sharing an ice cream when the ice cream truck stopped on our street. Playing tag with the rest of the neighborhood kids at nighttime--he'd always let me find him first. How we could just sit and talk, or not talk, for hours...he was truly my best friend.




And now, thru some miraculous twist of fate, he's suddenly reappeared! At a time in my life when I've been searching to find out who I really am and what I really want, there he is! The boy I viewed as my one constant,(a mountain of stability, of compassion and caring, of real acceptance and trust) as a young girl who knew nothing but instability and unpredicability, has found his way back into my life as the wonderful man I knew he would become. What a joy to reconnect with him! To get reacquainted and to see that he hasn't really changed much from the young boy I adored...just a bit taller, more wrinkles, wiser. He is still compassionate, caring, open and accepting, non-judgemental and trusting. The only thing between us is distance, which we will bridge soon, and I will get to look into the eyes of this wonderful man and glimpse the boy he was and we will pick up where we left off...talking and laughing about everything, or nothing and just feeling safe and accepted...as we are...flawed and imperfect alone...but perfect together.