One of the best things about old friends, if you're lucky (and I am, without a doubt), is that even if it's been
years between visits, the time apart flies away the minute your eyes meet again, and all the catching up and filling in is accomplished with ease, and joy...no guilt, no sadness, just joy at seeing each other again.
We did that, my darling longest loves and I, those dears from forever and always. We laughed and cried and created a terrible, wonderful ruckus and didn't give one damn that we were making a scene. We talked, and shared, and caught up, and it was
wonderful. Those faces, those voices, those familiar laughs...such treasures. Carol swears it's been 20 years, and mathematically I know she's right, but in my heart? That's impossible!
Nostalgia has a strong hold on me these days.
Regrets? Not exactly...more like wishes, and mainly the wish that I could have my cake and eat it too. I wish I could be back in Arkansas, my life intertwined with those I've loved so long, living in a place so familiar that it seems to slow the passage of time...I wish I could do that, AND be here, in the separate and beautiful life I made for myself when I left Little Rock 31 years ago. I wish I could have it all. Now that I'm working from home (thank you, former employer, for putting me in a position to make that happen, and thank you even more, new employer, for making it possible!) I plan to make more frequent trips back. I need to refill the well.
Missy, my best friend since babyhood (we played in a playpen together), spent a whole afternoon pampering me at the
day spa where she works as an aesthetician, and I left that evening with long, fluttery eyelash extensions, which, although my own lashes are fine and stubby, looked amazing and natural. So fun!
These completely unnatural extensions would be fun, too, don't you think? I'd wear 'em!
All the better to see you with, my dears...
"Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes."
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Missy, Laura, Carol, Sherry, Dennis (and Skip!) - I love you!! :)