i have posted previously about friendships... this week alyssa and i were talking about friends of choice vs. friends of convenience... i think there are also friends for a season vs. friends for all seasons... (and in my head is resonating - "i'll be your girl for all seasons... all the year through...") which may be factored into the convenience/choice discussion...
amy sent out a mass email to the camp staff that we worked on - as kind of an update on her life... which caused a lot of other people from our staff to reply with what is going on in their lives... it's cool, but kind of weird... i really haven't talked to some of them since that summer... over 2 and a half years ago (in august, 3)... i keep up with amy - who could have easily been a friend of convenience for that summer, but God wanted us to be friends of choice... for all seasons (which i'm eternally grateful for!!!)
at the same time, i randomly have been emailing with a girl i went to seminary with my first year - who got married and moved away last year... i hadn't talked to her in several months and out of the blue, she ran into jeff in california - which spurred on communication between the two of us...
and then... i've recently been in communication with one of the girls i spent time with in east asia... and she saw a guy on campus who we both knew in east asia - and he had been talking to people too...
one time in college, i drew this picture... what i thought my life would look like... it was this one line that stretched from one corner of the page all the way to the other corner... and there were all different colors of lines, intersecting each other and all impacting my line in some way, even if it didn't directly intersect my line... it had an impact on another line that intersected mine... you get the idea...
but there was this one green line - it was my favorite... and it was a line that was really close to my line for a while, then it separated, but twisted back around and intersected my line at a different point... that line made me happy... it was that line that i knew would bring a happy surprise later on... friendships that seemingly disappear, only to re-enter later on... and i'm not saying that from that point on (the second intersection), that i'll be friends with them forever... but then, at that point, it brings encouragement from someone who knew me a long time ago, in a different place... and i'm reminded... i came from somewhere... God has brought me farther than i was in that place... so i'm reminded of where i once was, but encouraged by where i am now...
and that's what i've been feeling this week... out of nowhere, a whole lot of people in my life who i haven't heard from in months and years, out of the blue, are there... and it's kind of weird... but nice...
i made up a new expression about a new friend i made recently... "happy surprised..." - i'm happy surprised by all the new-old people in my life... all kinds of people from my past who have recircled and intersected my life once again...
and in my mind, it's likely, that once all this "hey, how's it going? what are you up to these days?" stuff passes, it will go back to normal... i don't expect to stay in close contact with them forever or even for the next several months... but i'm happy surprised that they're still there and we can encourage each other again, if only as a busboy in a restaurant type of way...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
yeah. great quote!
i just finished reading the emails myself and i feel the same way. it's so good and encouraging to talk to people that were such a huge part of your life...if only for a few months. i think jen said it best when she said that no matter what, we have influenced each other in ways we'll never truly see. it's been great fun reliving some old memories. maybe it is time to pop in the old mobile 02 tape and see how far God has brought me over the past couple years.
Post a Comment