I had lunch with one of my lifelong best friends this weekend. We haven’t seen each other much in years, but we were able to reconnect when Amai went to college since my friend and her family live there in the same city. It was like no time had passed- apart from having to fill in lots of gaps of time and details that we didn’t get to live through together (and keep asking each other if we’d already told this story because we are getting a tiny bit older haha).
She is the same beautiful soul who witnessed every one of my angsty teen years. (She witnessed the beginning of my killer crush on Jimmy- the cello player wearing the peach colored shirt at 7th grade orchestra camp.) We laughed til we cried together more times than I can count. We eventually went over and over every detail about the boys we wanted to date and weren’t dating, as well as the boys we did date and occasionally dumped. We shared the highs and lows of being part of a super competitive and highly talented high school orchestra (yes we were orch dorks together.) We went on orchestra trips and roomed together every time. We worked through arguments when they happened and somehow remained soul close, even all these years later. She was a steady source of rock solid devotion, love and belief in me.
So there we were at lunch. And she’s going through something hard. It was almost like the words she was speaking were words I had etched on a piece of paper in the past and folded time in such a way that the voice of the aches of my own soul so many years ago came floating right out of her mouth. So many of the same questions and heartaches I’ve gone through, the longing for direction and answers. And I hope that some of the wisdom and growth I’ve experienced through my own trials were able to be a buoy to her as she is floating in a sea I somehow escaped. I cannot reel her in, she will have to learn how to swim. But I can certainly keep coming to the dock and throwing her more buoys. She might not know it yet, but she will reach the shore and be ok. I know she will.
Friends are a true treasure in life. I’m so very thankful that I have several I can trace back to my very young years. What an incredible gift.