Keep The Old . . .

Make new friends

But keep the old.

One is silver

And the other gold.

Today, after more years than I care to even count, I had lunch with a childhood friend.  Shannon and I grew up together --- both of us the youngest in our families of older brothers.   We shared many an adventure when we were little.  Most were good adventures with lots of laughter, but there also was the tragic death of her daddy when we were quite young---a devastation to all the families in our little neighborhood group.  Not long after that, life and different school districts began to take us apart---a reality of growing up in the South in the 60's and 70's.  She went to a private school and I didn't.   We eventually lost touch, although we still only live a few miles from each other.   Several times over the years, we have run into each other and promised to make plans to get together--but somehow it never happened.

But, we re-connected today.  We caught up on each other's families and jobs and church, etc.  And we talked about how different life is now---with the technological/social/medical advances of today, her father probably never would have died, her mother would have received the help she needed for depression and we probably never would have lost touch.  But, life goes on and it is good.  Healing has happened for her and for me in so many different ways and it was good to get to share that with each other once again.