Remembering Friends

Today I received an email from an old friend who started me thinking. She mentioned in her note how she was "taken back" at how many years had gone by. She said she, "felt a bit embarassed" and wondered if she "still knew me?" As children and young adults, we had spent literally every day together. However, as the years went on and we grew older we lost touch. We travelled different roads, lived different lives, found new friends, and except for the occassional birthday calls, emails and reunions, didn't spend a lot of time together. I thought, "could our bond really be over?" The email triggered something in me and I started to reminisce in my mind the days of my youth. I couldn't help but smile at all the really wonderfully fun and stupid things we did together. We shared so many "firsts" together. Our first day of school, our first time venturing off our block, our first dance, our first experience at love and kissing a boy, and let's not forget, our first time driving, the list goes on and on! Then it hit me, "No Way!" We could never loose our bond. I believe as a child we are the purest sense of ourself. We share a bond of so many wonderful everyday experiences of our youth. We supported one another through moments in truth that no one else will ever know. Our lives were developed together, our likes and dislikes, our talents and passions and our personalities. In our lives as we grow older, we are met with obstacles and roadblocks, and sometimes make choices that alter our true paths. We did not have the same distractions as children as in our adult lives, therefore, we were able to experience one another as our true selves. If each of us are fortunate enough, as we grow we start to see our lives differently. We pay attention to the signs, so to speak, and allow our lives to come full circle. When we become conscious of our true inner self, we can return to who we always were. In the end, our purest being is who we return to being, only better! I feel truly blessed to have wonderful life long friends. Although we may not all see each other daily as in our youth, I will always hold each of them as family in my heart. I will always consider us part of the same, as are we all, our only difference is of degree!