She's alive and well...

Capping off my week of bonding with friends both near and far, I met with an OLD friend from high school. She was out on a business trip, and we'd been trying to find a time we were both available this week for dinner, coffee, whatever. We managed to agree on breakfast this morning, and had a lovely time catching up on major events in each other's lives. She's had a few more catastrophes this last year than I have, but there have been some silver linings to all the changes.

It was good to see her, hug her, hear in her own words that life is moving along the way it does, regardless of our opinion on the matter. I wish we lived closer, and that old history had not whittled away our relationship back when we graduated. She's a beautiful person, and brilliant writer. And she laughs at all my jokes--what more can you ask for in a friend?

She's my antithesis--maybe that is why I like her so much. Unlike me, she is quiet and reserved. She writes more poetry* than I do, I suspect in part because she actually sits still long enough to hear thoughts form. Like watching birds in nature, you see the most if you can be tranquil, so they forget you are there.

I am more like my 7-year old, who shouts to everyone in the house, "There's a bird in the birdbath!" so loudly, that the bird flies away before anyone else can see. So it goes with any poetry that might light on the edges of my mind. Wry comments and observations on the nature of boys are less easily perturbed. They hang out waiting to be blogged, and come back again and again.


---------------------
*(Actually, you can read her poetry online through this link. This is another internet reunion story--I found her on Google because of this page. There is a link to a recording of her reading a poem out loud. What a miracle it was when I found this page, and heard her voice online more than a decade after we had last parted ways.)