No this is not about Dr. Seuss, as much as we have all enjoyed his oh so valuable contribution to our individual and collective literary development. What this is about is – the wonderful people who have been part of my life in different chapters with whom I have reconnected recently. A college roommate whom I hope to see in a few months when Ken and I are in Atlanta, a best friend from college with whom I have promised myself to have a phone conversation soon simply ecause I have mentioned him to so many people recently, a wonderful friend whom I met in my twenties who just spent Shabbat with Ken and me and her husband, some Orthodox Rabbis whom I have always liked best as a result of some work I am presently doing for ESHEL, two friends from separate parts of my high school life who ended up marrying each other not so long ago and with whom I had a wonderful dinner a few months ago, and so it goes.
I have truly been blessed with so many people in my life and so many different venues and communities of which I have been part. I never separate easily and remember such sadness when it was the last day at a school I was leaving, or the end of a work assignment or when I realized I was not going to an annual retreat called CAJE any longer after 28 years of consistent attendance. So, imagine, how excited when these wonderful people circle back in my life. It definitely gives me a sense of the many places I have been (thanks again for the reference, Dr. Seuss!)
My eldest daughter has friends in her life from high school and even earlier, all the way back to her earliest years as a very young child. I really love that. It is even more meaningful to me when I myself have various degrees of friendship with the parents of these thirty-somethings! And now their children – the third generation – are friends. This is one of the profound blessings I have in my life for which I am so grateful. It is the friendships that I have had consistently for decades that truly make me feel grounded. How much fun it is to be in a room with people I have known so long and to realize that my husband of 22 years is one of my “newer friends,” which does still happen from time to time.
Years ago, someone I know was so distraught when a member of her community, an occasional friend, died suddenly. I distinctly remember her saying that they were going to get together and it never happened. Oh yes, I definitely have those friends with whom I play phone tag trying to arrange time together and of course, we are all busy. Nonetheless, it is so wonderful and so grounding to know that these people are in my life and that I can reach out to them, whether it is a childhood friend who lives in Nevada and talk on the phone while decades can just vanish as do the miles that separate us geographically.
I love pretty and well decorated environments and do indeed take pride in the beautiful home that my husband and I have created along with our four children and now two spouses and three members of the next generation – Yoella’s (that eldest daughter) girls. That being said, I have always claimed that I would rather be judged or thought of not for the materials in my environment but for the people there. And it is clear that these people I have met in so many chapters of my life are still here…. And this gives me so much hope for continued chapters of sharing and growing for all of us. And yes, I will call my friend from college soon!!!! Why don’t we all think about those people in our lives and do the same?
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