to Forever Friends

I’m not going to bore you with my mental state right now. It’s that time of year, I guess. My down time. My dwelling-on-the-meaning-of-life and coming up with pointless negatives. NOT that I’m depressed. I don’t really believe in depression. Ups and downs – THAT’s what life is all about. And I’m quite content with my life right now… except for the fact that it seems rather pointless and I’m not sure what all the effort is about so why shouldn’t I just stay in bed until noon and eat chocolate and drink Chai Lattes (I just discovered them and I am HOOKED, let me tell you, HOOKED.)

But like I said, I’m not going to bore you with ALL that… right now.

This weekend I took my kiddos and my sister for eighteen hours in the car to see my oldest friend get married. She’s oldest, as in I’ve known her forever and we played together when we were still both in diapers. Not oldest as in OLD. Cause hey, we are only in our mid-30s. And that’s NOT old, dang it!



Hubby looks at this picture and says, “You two are as different as two people can possibly be.” He was speaking physically, of course. I’m dark. She’s light. It’s always been this way, one of the many ways we complement each other, I like to think. As long as I can remember, she’s been there. She’s the one friend whose status as “friend” never changed through everything else that is always… always changing.

Now I have to be careful or I’m going to let my morose shine through. I’m having a hang-up with CHANGE today.

…So let me tell you about my kids. I dragged them through two states in a car and they were spectacular. And by this I mean, they were models of perfect children. No kidding. I even wondered, at times, if I’d actually put the right children in the back of the rental vehicle we were driving. Perhaps it came with rental children, as well. Not once did anyone ask, “Are we there yet?”

Well, perhaps once… but we were all of fifteen minutes from THERE when it happened and it was nothing more than a simple question. No whining. No complaining. No beating on siblings and threatening to throw things out the window.

What I’ve ever done to deserve this, I can’t imagine. My kids were amazing… Really. Truly. Amazing beyond their normal awe-inspiring selves. Even on my up days… this blows me away a little.

Speaking of amazing… my sister is amazing. She rode on a train for 10 hours just so she could jump in a car for another 9 hours just so she could spend 36 hours in Texas and then ride another 9 hours for another 10 hour train trip home. All just because I asked her to. She’s my favorite person to travel with… aside from my amazing children. I think I shall hereby make a rule that I will never spend more than… oh, say… four hours in a vehicle without my sister coming along.

I am a very lucky person. Spectacular Children. Amazing Sister. Wonderful Hubby who missed me terribly the whole 54 hours I was gone. A friend who has been around long enough she remembers when I wore diapers… or at least we have pictures to prove it was a fact that we played together all those many years ago.

ALL. Those. Many. Years. Ago.

Perhaps the only thing that hasn’t changed… She is light. I am dark.



And even though she lives far away and much has changed and we live very different lives… I will always…

Love her.

Call her friend.

Know that I am loved.

Her light. My dark. Time can’t take that away from us. Ever.