Monday, February 10, 2014

Friendship

When you're getting long in the tooth like I am - well, not really, but over 50 years of life experience on this beautiful Earth does give one some wisdom - you start to contemplate your gifts.

"It is better to have one true friend than all the acquaintances in the world."  (Unknown)

I wholeheartedly agree with this quote; however, I am one lucky girl, because I have many true friends.  Just yesterday I met up with one such friend, the kind of friend you feel in your heart.  We met on a trip to France and Corsica for teachers who had run travel trips for students.  That trip, in July 2007,  was magical because the group just synced so well, and I wasn't the only one who made lasting friendships.  Lorraine lives in Washington, DC.  She is one of 4 people with whom I have kept in touch over the 6 1/2 years since the trip.  We tried to get together when I was in New York City not long after the trip, but the time was limited for me, and the train too expensive to go to DC for a couple of hours.

Yesterday we finally met up once again, and what a joy it was to see each other, and hug, and talk and talk.  She is down visiting friends not too far away from us.  She thought I had a new email address, and I was supposed to send her a note so we could make arrangements. . . well, time went along and I didn't do it until Friday.  She just popped into my brain and I thought, I'm sending her a quick email now, as I knew she was coming to Florida sometime in the early part of the year.  Well, when my email popped into her phone, she was in line to board her plane to come here!  So, it was definitely meant to be.  What a wonderful day we had: lunch at a quaint, mainly locally-known only, dockside restaurant, which they all just loved, a stroll along Anna Maria beach, and a lovely drive back to our condo along a couple of the keys and through Sarasota, and all the while reminiscing about the fateful trip, and sharing stories about our lives.  To have gone to so much trouble to see each other in person, and to have kept in touch for these past 6+ years and now to know that we will do this again, either by meeting her again in Florida next winter, or by us possibly driving through DC on our way home or on our way back down next Fall, means that ours is a true friendship.

And distance, although hard sometimes, really is not a factor, now that we have such wonderful tools as FaceTime, Skype, email, and texting.  I have what I consider true friends across the US and Canada, and just getting up early this morning, watching the sun rise,

and contemplating the joy of yesterday made me realize that I truly am blessed.  Yes, I have friends who I consider acquaintances, but I have so many who are the kind I feel deeply in my heart centre.

It takes effort, on my behalf, as well as on theirs, to maintain a deeper level of friendship.  Yet the effort is effortless, really.  And the rewards are truly good for the soul.

Now, speaking of good for the soul, I'm jumping onto my machine to work on this next little project with lots of piecing and trimming (egad) that was in my dreams last night!  How I love dreaming about quilts and about colours and fabric!!




3 comments:

  1. Aaaah, so wonderful to have soul-mates in the form of good friends. Me too!
    And um, methinks I recognize that material in the last picture?? Is it perchance leftover from MY quilt?!

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  2. Funny you mention that...while I've been working on it (and working and working...I'm going to count up how many triangles there are once I'm done piecing them, phew) I've been very much reminded of your quilt. Did I write what fabric line yours are on the label? I'm often drawn to these rich, warm, earthy tones, so it could be a similar line. This is Moda's "Bound to the Prairie" by Kansas Troubles Quilters.

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  3. "...dreaming about quilts and about colours and fabric!!"
    Love this line...

    And, as a side note, it's funny how blog friendships work. As I read and follow and in a way get to know you, it always takes me by surprise, makes me smile, and reminds me you are in (or from) a different country when I see that "u" in what I would spell "color."

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