friends from the beginning

The other day I spoke to my oldest friend on the phone.  I love her dearly. We have known each other since we were in diapers. We have been through a lot together and it is always good to talk with her. She has moved to another state and we don't see each other often and lives get in the way and so we don't talk as often as we'd like.

But. when we talk it is as though time has stood still. Conversation never lags and for just that moment, I am young again sharing good conversation with her on her front steps or upstairs in my bedroom.  

When we talked, we did something we seem to do more and more often lately ...we reminisced. I really enjoyed it. I loved remembering the things we did as well as who we were so many years ago. We are very different people now and yet a lot of who we are has remained the same.

I hope you have a friend you have known forever. Someone you grew up with. Someone who knows your family history. Someone you have great memories with.  I do. We had pillow fights, food fights, shaving cream vs whipped cream fights. She threw water on me to wake me up and I forced her to get up at the crack of dawn to go running. We sneaked into porno films to see what the big deal was and tried Sushi for the first time together. We slept over each other's house and shared our first bottle of imported champagne together. we were in each other's weddings and have always been there for each other.

We dreamed of our weddings and our children and our future together. We shared our dream jobs, dream homes, and dream men with each other. We laughed, shared, cried, dated, broke up, married, divorced, widowed, and had children together. We have lived our lives together ... always ... even when she moved away and we stopped seeing each other almost daily. That is true blue, true gold, forever friendship. I am glad she was my friend growing up and I am glad we are still friends. She knows who I was and how I have changed just as I know who she is and how she has changed. She knows who I am and loves me just as I know who she is and love her. There are things that have happened in my life that she was there for and I don't have to explain and vice-versa. We can often read each other's thoughts and sometimes she even says what I am thinking before I do (and vice-versa). She is my friend and I love her.

We all need an old friend like that. Someone we have known all our lives. They are a mirror to our past; a barometer to our future. All of you out there with friends you have known for years, cherish them and ... the next time you see them, give them a hug. They have earned it ... and so have you