I’m having a blast from the past, or, more accurately, I think it’s a blizzard. Until very recently, I could count on one hand the number of people that I have actively kept in touch with over the years. There’s one friend from high school who has consistently understood my apparently abysmal pen-pal skills and has been content with one or two emails a year. Then there’s college…hmm, college…oh, well there’s the professor from whom I borrowed The Girl’s middle name; we exchange emails every so often and even got together once as we were traveling through on a move from Alabama to Texas. From law school, there’s one guy with whom I had lunch a lot when we both worked in downtown Birmingham and our families have had dinner maybe once or twice over the years. As far as past coworkers, well that’s just a crap shoot really.
So I’ll admit that I really suck at this; well, actually, I guess I can say I used to. Once it seemed undeniable that we were staring down yet another major move, this time leaving Franklin, I began to get VERY sentimental about leaving all my friends. (Well, let’s be honest, the sentimentality has been sneaking up on me steadily in recent years). In the past whenever I have resolved to be a better pen-pal, I’ve always fallen short — getting busy with kids and life … blah, blah, blah. This time around, though, a friend in Franklin suggested I check out Facebook. I had never really been into anything like it before, but I’ll admit that I’m addicted now. It’s awesome! I’ve re-connected with tons of people from all different points in my life. Now I can keep up with all my friends! Wow, I actually have friends! (“People like me; they really, really like me.” What’s that from?)
Anyway, the Facebook thing started out like a blast and then we got back to Little Rock and that’s when the blizzard started. I’m having meals with high school chums, play-dates with people I knew in Corpus Christi (who now live here, too! small world!), visits from former college-era roommates (and their children!), and a two-hour phone conversation with my best friend from law school. And I don’t even like the telephone! But it was soooo wonderful to talk with her about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going; we’ve had a very similar Christian journey as of late and I appreciate her and her testimony tremendously.
All of this is, though, making me wish that I had been better at keeping in touch over the years, that I’d been a better friend. So I’m just resolving (no, not a New Year’s resolution; that’s a whole other post!) to be better from this point forward. Who knows, maybe I’m officially old and thus extremely sentimental and nostalgic about the good old days, or maybe I’m just bored; either way, I do believe God put us here to build relationships, care for others and bring glory to Him…so I am officially announcing my status as a “people person.” See there now, people can change.
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