"Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold." Remember this old quote? I was surfing Facebook today and found the home page of a dear friend I had lost touch with many years ago. We were best of friends from 2nd through 10th grade and even reunited one weekend several years after college with our husbands in tow. We drifted apart after that under the pressures and demands of life and I sorely regretted letting that connection lapse. I trust that time has not dimmed that spark of a friendship and we can be friends anew, learning all that has happened in the intervening years, laughing and crying and sharing again.
It's wonderful to make new friends - find out how many things you have in common, delight in exploring each other's lives, loves, and history. It's the kind of adventure that makes me feel young. But, it's also wonderful to have old friends - those special people who have stayed in your life regardless of the trials, the years, or the miles apart. It's treasure knowing there is someone just a phone call or knock away with whom you can share a secret without fear, cry in desperation, or glory in a triumph. And one to whom you can say "Remember when..." and s/he won't groan because "Mom always tells that story," but will laugh with you until the tears run, and even add something you've forgotten. Maybe there should be a corollary to that quotation, as in "The first keeps you young, the second takes you home." It's not perfect - but hey, I don't make my living as a poet!
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