Last Monday morning I was surrounded by a pile of dirty clothes and bed linens in preparation for weekend guests when I received a text from my friend Sarah.
“I’m at my folks and heading home tomorrow. How about if I stop by for a visit?”
“Hell yah!” I shot back.
“OK, see you tomorrow!”
Sarah is one of my dearest friends. We started working at First Command (then USPA/IRA) within a couple of months of each other back in 1998. While there we graduated our children from high school and college, endured Navy widowhood while our husbands were deployed and shared all the assorted other stuff associated with both office life and home life. Though the years we’ve become comfortable friends, able to go long periods without contact, but picking up and continuing when we are lucky enough to have our paths cross.
Last spring, after I stopped working, Sarah and I were able to spend more time together, exploring knitting shops, grabbing a bite of lunch or just enjoying a cup of coffee on her back deck. We share a love of nature; flora and fauna, wine and knitting, in about that order. I love the sound of her laugh so often poke fun at her to get her going. Since my move, the phone has been our only source of conversation. Just last week I realized I hadn’t spoken to her since before the holidays.
Addressing my pile of laundry became more urgent. Vacuuming and dusting we also added to the “to do” list along with the bathrooms. A week’s worth of housework had to be condensed down to one day. I hit the gas and got moving. Then the phone rang….
It was my friend Kim. We met on the way home after dropping our kids off for their first day of school at Mililani Waena in Hawaii. Our husbands’ military tours on Oahu overlapped almost completely giving us three years to pal around and explore together. Andy and her oldest son Josh became friends and our families both attended St. John the Apostle and Evangelist RC church. Kim invited me to join her on several Marine Corps OWC outings which were all great fun. At the end of our tours, they were off to Okinawa and we headed to the DC area.
About six years later, we were settled in Virginia Beach, when Kim’s husband Jeff received orders to Norfolk. Those years were choked with work, teen drama and heavy church commitments so we mostly saw each other at church or at the odd lunch to catch up. After a couple of years, Jeff received orders again and they were gone.
We reconnected several years later when we had a trip planned to Fredericksburg to attend a wedding reception. As it turned out, the bride’s parents lived on the same street as Kim and Jeff. I gave her a call to see if we could get together at some point during the weekend and she invited us to spend the weekend with them. Again, they are the kind of friends you can just pick up with where you left off and enjoy.
Back to the phone call…
“I’m catching up on my Christmas card calls.” she said, “You probably think I’m horrible for not sending you one after you send me one.”
“Did I send you one?” I asked, “I was so confused when my cards went out I couldn’t remember who I sent them to.”
“Since we live so close, we should get together again, maybe meet somewhere half way for lunch….”
Half an hour later, having caught up on the highlights of the past couple years, I hung up with the promise that we would indeed get together in the next few weeks for a lunch or maybe even dinner with the guys.
Friendship is such a treasure. I sincerely love that my friends feel free to burst into my life when the notion suits them, like the sun bursting through the clouds after a cloudy day. The laundry and dust will always be with me, while the time I am gifted to spend with my friends will not.
Speaking of laundry, I have to switch loads. I hope the phone rings!