Friendship is a funny thing. You never know what will cause two people to become friends - or stay friends.
There are the friends you have because you see them every day, you share a lot in common with them, and they're fun to hang out with. There are others, though, a rare kind that you can even see once every several years and it's like the time never passed; you pick up right where you left off, and the years melt away. Everyone needs someone like that. At least one someone. Hopefully more!
The past week has been rather difficult for me for personal reasons, especially yesterday. The reasons are immaterial, it's just interpersonal stuff. I was feeling attacked by someone against whom I could not retaliate for various reasons.
This morning was weird. Usually hubby and I would have gone out to have a coffee early in the day, but we waited for some reason - then decided on a whim (okay it was because we saw politicians in the neighborhood and didn't want to talk to them) to go right then. Having only had one cup of coffee, we decided to head to our usual spot for another. The cream machine was on the fritz so we had to wait until it was fixed before we got our coffee - five minutes.
During that five minutes, someone got in the lineup to be served, and was waiting patiently. I thought she looked familiar ... but I didn't want to stare.
Within a minute or two, I saw her out of the corner of my eye, heading briskly in my direction. It WAS the person I thought it was - I had not seen her for over three years! She was so pleased to see me and I her, that we must have spent ten or fifteen minutes standing there talking a blue streak - like those years had vanished - catching up on our news and each being so glad the other was there.
It was just what she needed in that moment, and just what I needed as well. I told her afterward that this was a "God thing". (After all, coincidences are said to be just "God's way of remaining anonymous"... but there were just way too many of them so He tipped His hand - on purpose!)
We reminisced, we laughed, we shared, we even cried a little. It was such a wonderful gift, given when each of us needed it most.
I don't pretend to know how these things work, but as I look at the problem I have been having all week and the events of yesterday that will need to be addressed, somehow it doesn't seem quite so overwhelming anymore. I guess I needed to be reminded that I'm not alone and that people can like me for exactly who I am, and more than that: I can contribute to someone else's life and enrich it just by being there - and that there are people that enrich my life by their very presence, people who I like just for who they are.
That rare kind of friendship can't be quantified. It's priceless.
There are the friends you have because you see them every day, you share a lot in common with them, and they're fun to hang out with. There are others, though, a rare kind that you can even see once every several years and it's like the time never passed; you pick up right where you left off, and the years melt away. Everyone needs someone like that. At least one someone. Hopefully more!
The past week has been rather difficult for me for personal reasons, especially yesterday. The reasons are immaterial, it's just interpersonal stuff. I was feeling attacked by someone against whom I could not retaliate for various reasons.
During that five minutes, someone got in the lineup to be served, and was waiting patiently. I thought she looked familiar ... but I didn't want to stare.
Within a minute or two, I saw her out of the corner of my eye, heading briskly in my direction. It WAS the person I thought it was - I had not seen her for over three years! She was so pleased to see me and I her, that we must have spent ten or fifteen minutes standing there talking a blue streak - like those years had vanished - catching up on our news and each being so glad the other was there.
It was just what she needed in that moment, and just what I needed as well. I told her afterward that this was a "God thing". (After all, coincidences are said to be just "God's way of remaining anonymous"... but there were just way too many of them so He tipped His hand - on purpose!)
I don't pretend to know how these things work, but as I look at the problem I have been having all week and the events of yesterday that will need to be addressed, somehow it doesn't seem quite so overwhelming anymore. I guess I needed to be reminded that I'm not alone and that people can like me for exactly who I am, and more than that: I can contribute to someone else's life and enrich it just by being there - and that there are people that enrich my life by their very presence, people who I like just for who they are.
That rare kind of friendship can't be quantified. It's priceless.
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