Something About Old Friends

It’s got to be one of the most refreshing experiences in life.

To all intents and purposes it feels like a ‘typical’ day, then when you check your email, you see a message from someone you haven’t heard from in a long time. They reach out to you and suggest that you meet up sometime.

The arrangements are made and when the time comes, there is an exhilarated feeling. You know that meeting them will have that weird and wonderful mixture of what was, what is and what might have been and what could still be. There’s the chance to delve into a familiarity and a time to check what that looks like in this different day, this new chapter.

That’s all in the warm up. That’s all in the thinking of what could be.

Then there’s the experience. You see the friend get off the train, they have familiar features, but time has passed for them, just as it’s passed for you. But the smile. That smile. It brings all the past rushing into the present and as you hug the warmth goes  way beyond the physical.

There’s a little testing of the waters, but because you know it’s safe, it doesn’t take too long before you both dive in. Dive into checking what the present is. Dipping into what it was before. Then riffing a new thing based on old familiar rhythms.

Sometimes there’s talking, sometimes there’s blissful silence. Sometimes there’s something a little awkward to work through, but the bond established over the investment of shared life in shared time means the awkwardness can be smoothed over to gain an even richer understanding of how the now is different to the then.

When there’s refreshments, it gives beautiful time for respite and reflection before resuming. It is a different space from the norm. It is not typical. It is not the futile hope of recreating yesteryear, but it is the joyful celebration and exploration of what now looks like and what then looked like in the light of now.

It’s all done in good company. In safe company. In loving company. And before you know it, the time is over. Words are exchanged of seeing each other again, but there is never a guarantee. Life has shown that those we thought would be a rock that lasts often fall away. Nothing lasts forever. Not even this encounter, this all too fleeting experience. Yet at least the encounter took place. At least there was the present.

Ahhhhhh the joy of being together – the old friends.

It’s got to be one of the most refreshing experiences in life.

(Photo by Harli Marten on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden