Reaching Out

One of the other things that I did this past long weekend, was call and/or email friends that I hadn't heard from in a while.

As I have dared to venture out of 'the safe zone' I have created in my life and started investing my energy in creating some new friendships, I realized that I needed to tend to the friends that I already have.

Most people were busy or away ... but I did manage to connect with a friend that I made 31 years ago. Once upon a time, we made a promise that we would go on a cruise together when we were 40 years old. Almost a decade has passed since that goal came and went without our anticipated cruise. So I've tossed out the idea that we should make that dream come true. Next year. I wanted to call and talk to her about the idea of taking that long awaited holiday.

Our lives have drifted in two totally different directions. A year can come and go without contact. She lives two provinces away from me. Our paths haven't crossed in over 20 years.

Yet, as soon as she heard my voice on the other end of the telephone line ... the years vanished.

We talked for two hours without taking a breath. Each of us had stories to tell of our present day lives. When I mentioned one particular subject that concerns me, she has the 'history' to know what lies deep under the surface. She was the friend that walked with me through the relationship that left me physically battered and bruised. So when I speak of the past, it is quite likely that she remembers it more vividly than I do - I voluntarily block a lot of those memories.

I don't have another friend that has walked that particular walk with me.

I've come to peace with that time in my life. I don't dwell on those years. At all. I pull them out and deal with them as necessary as my son needs to talk about that time. So much of who he is today, is because of what he saw, felt and lived throughout 'those years'. This is the undercurrent that my friend picked up on. She knew what I was saying without me having to say a word.

Friends. Those who know us better than we know ourselves sometimes. Special people that have walked at our side and saw us through the best of times. The worst of times. Someone you can call out of the blue and remember what it feels like to be 18 again.

We laughed. We shed a few tears. We reminisced and reflected. We looked at our present day lives and dared to dream about what we hope is in store.

It was just like the old days ...