Yesterday, an old friend of mine came over for coffee. When we were teenagers, we were best friends. We used to spend hours philosophizing, analyzing life and discovering all the facets of our identity. The teenage years are so important in terms of self-discovery. Friends are an essential part of that period of exploration.
He settled down very young. By the age of 24 years old, he had already had his first child. From that moment on, our encounters were sporadic. Once a year, we would phone each other to get some news. In the past 10 years, I have been invited to attend his art openings. He is a painter who is struggling, but slowly succeeding in making a living from his art.
In the past year, he has gone through several life changes. When I went to his yearly art exhibit in June, he was distraught. He told me that he had been going through a rough time in the past couple of months. Since then, we’ve reconnected. I feel like we’ll be seeing each other much more frequently than we have in the past 20 years.
As I was discussing with him yesterday afternoon, I realized that somehow, time hadn’t changed our friendship. We both evolved and changed in some ways, but our interaction was so familiar. Right away, our conversation dove into the depth of philosophy and spirituality.
When he left, I started thinking about old friendships. So many people pass through our lives, impacting it in various ways. What I have realized is that if the connection with a person was profound, it tends to remain the same, transcending time and space.
It was such an agreeable hour. And as he left, I thought of another old friend I’ve been sporadically keeping in touch with. I took the phone and called her up!
Not everyone has good memories of childhood friendships or is in the mood to reconnect with people in their past. Some people prefer burying that period of their life, deeming that the past should remain in the past. I don’t think friendships that didn’t impact your life positively should be revitalized, but sometimes life parts us from people we really felt connected with and in that case, a little effort on our part could make us reestablish a relationship that never really died and brought us a lot of joy.
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