“Someone once said: “We do not make friends, we recognize them.” And you’ll know who they are because they play according to the same rules that you do.”
― Ken Niimura, Gotham Academy #16
Someone once told me that he did not have many friends. I was just amazed at that statement. From my young point of view, it seemed he had many friends. He must have noticed my surprised look because he went on to explain to me that he had many acquaintances, but very few friends.
Because I was young, I did not and could not fully appreciate the difference he was trying to point out to me. As I’ve aged and my life experiences have grown, I understand and I agree.
I have been very lucky in my life with the friends I have made along the way. This past summer I was able to spend some time with one of the best. Thank you, Mary Beth, for opening up your home to me and spending an evening like the old days, talking, eating, and sharing wine around the kitchen table. I love and cherish you.
Our lives were different but so similar. We both worked with the public. Over the years, she was in law enforcement in one capacity or another and I was in healthcare. We’d whine together when we were both on call and wine together when we were not. We loved our dogs and watched over each other’s pups whenever we needed that type of help. Mary Beth–MB–was mostly single and I was alone often because Michael traveled a lot for his job. Because of that being on call thing, there were times when we needed each other to take care of each other’s furry family. We were across the street neighbors for almost twenty years.
We grew older together and it was comforting to have another woman to talk with about how life and the world were changing. Our conversations were all over the board because of the type of work we both had done over the years. We’d both seen people at their worst and at their best. Living these types of experiences daily over many years gave us both a very unique viewpoint on life. Add into that equation the fact we were living in the Denver area, we had a wide array of alternative lifestyle information to discuss and teach each other. What a hoot to share what I knew about things and compare that with what MB knew–the cop vs the healthcare worker. We really could and should write a book.
Mary Beth moved from the hood a few years before we left. It was painful for me to see her go–but her new home in the foothills called to her too strongly. It is beautiful and I am so thankful she shares it with me whenever I get back to Denver to visit.
‘Tis the season to appreciate those who are important to you. I cannot imagine my life without her even though we are nearly a thousand miles away from each other now. Man, I miss those nights when we could just walk across the street to share the wine and stumble back across the street afterward.
Take a moment, my friends, to think about those who care for and about you. As I have learned, a real friend is rare and precious. Treasure them and let them know how important they are to you.
If there is anything this past year has tried to teach us all is the fact that life is precious. In a blink of an eye, that rock that makes up so much of the foundation of your life is built upon can tumble. Bolster it up and hold on to that and them for as long as you can.
“Friendships – and indeed most relationships – are measured in the closeness of hearts,
minds and soul ties… not in the distance of physical miles or even the passing of time.”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru
I am…
B…simply being…
Love and peace, my dear friends.
B...simply being... 