A Friend From Long Ago

 It’s been a long time coming. This reunion I’m having, it’s been a long time coming. Ten years in fact, not to the t or anything and really it’s been longer. But at any rate I won’t be waiting that long again, not for a lot of things. 


It’s funny the things you notice, the things you remember after a long time. Because it wasn’t her face or her walk that made me realize that she was in-fact still my friend from long ago. It was her hands. The way she moved them and their shape, something about them was so familiar. I didn’t know I had remembered her hands beyond all else, but I did. And it was the thing that nearly brought me to tears. 


Because even after ten years she still talked with her hands the same way, still held them and placed them and moved them as if we were still kids. Still small young kids with no idea of the vastness of this world. And I’d love to be able to poetically say that I crossed an ocean to see her again, but I did fly all the way to her and I hate flying, so I guess that counts for something. 


People often exclaim about romantic love, and let the love of a friendship seem dull and forgettable. But I have known her my whole life, I don’t remember a time of not knowing her. And still it’s been ten years. But I got here and she ran out to meet me, ran out to hug me before anything else. And it really was like we were still just kids and I had simply come over for a sleepover. 


But the love in a friendship, in the family you choose, it doesn’t get enough credit. It took me a long time to get here, too long in-fact, but I still don’t regret it. Because I have known her as a child and now I get to get-to-know her as an adult. It is a strange little gift. 


My friend, my childhood friend from when I was young and full of light, my friend has the same hands. And I know mine are not the same, there are many scars and new freckles. But I know that in seeing this old friend of mine some of my light, that was once lost, it has come back to me. And I can not think of a better gift, wouldn’t ask for anything more. 


There are times when life is heavy and full of valleys. And there are times when the night just seems to last. But the sun always rises again, and the mountains will eventually come back into view. It just takes time. And it’s almost never the answer you’re looking for, but the timing of things when given to Him are always perfect. 


So if ever I had a time to quite going, and I had many, I will now forever have this moment to look back onto. This moment in time where the very thing I had longer for my whole childhood, my whole life since, it came to pass. The dream, the desire it came back to my heart and it came back in the form of becoming real. Because the love of a true friend, it doesn’t fade with time. It just takes the backseat while you get on with your life. Never really gone, just giving you space. 


It’s funny, my thankfulness is coming out in the form of tears, it is so big my body can not contain it. Really though this thankfulness, it feels like love. 

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