Sometimes I actually listen to my Self. And oh, am I glad this time I did.
August past I cleaned out some storage buckets in the green room. There, among the holiday village pieces was a box full of my early self. Letters, notes, cards, gifts, joys, and pains were all hidden among the blue #7 plastic of My Box.
I went through it all, piece by piece, memory by memory, surprisingly enjoying every heart-felt minute of it. The Box contained stories I had completely forgotten, and smiles I had so fortunately tucked away.
Many of those smiles came from a friend, my best friend. Chrysti (her spelling during our youth) and I were "together" for 4 1/2 years, almost exclusively. Then, as time does, we started to go our separate ways.
The last time I saw her was at her wedding when we were almost 20. She was marrying Bob Burns. How I remember his name, I'll never know, especially considering the steel trap my gray matter tends to be.
As I read through the hundreds of notes, cards, letters, and relived the memories that surfaced, I heard my Self encourage me to look her up. But, as life has it, the time past, life sped up, and seasons moved.
Several weeks ago, despite my mounding pile of papers to grade, assessments to give, and boys to attend to, I sat down and did "the" painless Goggle Search. If it had required much more than that, I would have never listened to my Self.
But there on the page was her name. My very first search, my very first hit.
I sent a quick, non-descript hello, to which I received a quick, non-descript, "Write me back."
I did. And wow.
Suddenly I find myself on a journey through time. The past 18 years have been eventful and for me, where to start was tough. I managed it, and stillthe sharing continues.
Christy (name now again traditional) too has had 18 years of experiences, and together we write, remember, and are working on catching up to the Now.
I like it when others listen to me. And for now, I'm thankful I listened to me, too.
1 comment:
Isn't it great when you reconnect with a long lost friend? I think it's happening more and more often now with the wonders of the internet and social websites like Facebook. I recently reconnected with a friend and classmate from the Naval Postgraduate School after not communicating with each other for 7 years. He's a Ukrainian Army officer and I hadn't heard from him since he went back to the Ukraine after graduation. I finally reconnected with him by sending an email to the defense attache at the American Embassy in Ukraine. They looked him up for me and found out he's the assistant defense attache right here at the Embassy of Ukraine in DC. We just had dinner with them Thanksgiving weekend and I went to a reception at the Embassy last week. It's been wonderful catching up with them.
Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with several old shipmates I had lost contact with. Just yesterday, I reconnected with one of my old quartermasters from 2001-2003 in San Diego. I've thought of him often over the years. Because of the way he used to say certain things, whenever someone else says one of those words to me, I hear his voice with his funny pronunciation in my head.
Anyway, it is nice to reconnect with old friends.
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