Old Friends

An old friend sent me an email through Facebook a couple of weeks ago that said simply "Ever notice how sometimes you think of the past and, BANG, you're right back there?"  I thought it was very profound and so true.  I have been journeying back through memories (fond ones) of Jr. High ever since. 

It has been 30 years since I have seen or heard from this person (and another that contacted me through this one). When I sat down to think about it - that is 2/3 of my lifetime.  Woah!  How did so much time get away from me.  These two individuals were such good friends in Jr. High but they went to different high schools than I did and we lost touch so quickly (as happens so often when one goes to a different school, different job, different church). Why do we not maintain relationships with people unless they are right in our faces?  Why is it so difficult to reach out and communicate with people that we actually like to be around?  I just don't understand that.

We are designed to need people and we all have people we love, people we like and love to be around and people who we maybe don't want to spend too much time with.  And yet when people are in our lives we don't maybe appreciate them as much as we should.  And when a circumstance makes it so that you no longer get to see them day to day they just slip quietly away and your relationship becomes a distant memory.  I have seen this time and again with the people I was soooo close to in school, people that I worked with when I left the job, the people who left the church that I was attending and then the people left behind when I left.  So many close, close friendships disolved into the mist of fond memories.  Where did they all go? What happened?  Why did they stop phoning me and spending time with me?

I will never have those answers. I don't call as often as I should either. I am sure that there are people that think the same of me - why did she stop calling me? Truth is I have never been a good caller - most of the time I am a callee and love it when people contact me.  I need to change that about myself.  I can't sit at home and wonder where all my friends are when I don't contact them either. 

I have been having a lot of fun getting caught up with these 2 individuals through Facebook.  I'm surprised that they haven't become famous rock stars or something but have just quietly been walking the journey that has been set before them, much like I have (although their journeys are very different from mine).  I love reconnecting with people that I haven't talked to for a long time.