So, What Have You Been Doing for the Last Year or So?

Today we met up with some old, true, great friends from David's graduate program. We all live within fifteen miles of each other, but it seriously has been almost two years since we've talked, really. We've been living our lives, apparently perfectly parallel, since we haven't crossed recently.

Their oldest is six now, and their three-year-old is - imagine this - the same size as Calvin already! And they are expecting their third in July. He changed jobs, months ago, and likes it a lot better than what he was doing the last time we knew what he was doing. Funny how at one time we were all in the big post-college job hunt, anxious for each other and wrapped up in each other's interview processes and job offers, praying and hoping together and expecting babies at the same time and freaking out about the cost of living, and now we just mention the life changes in passing. It was strange and great at the same time that after such a relatively long time we could get together, cook up some hotdogs, our kids could play, and we could talk again like it was just last weekend that we did the same thing.

But with that kind of friend so close by, why don't we get together more often? Or send e-mails? The answer seems easy - there's the career ladder and home improvement projects and preschool programs and teaching music on the side and church work. We click, "mark to reply" but the time just gets away somehow. It seems sad at first that the day-to-day grind should keep us from being a more integral part of each other's lives. What a shame.

But wow - what a blessing, too, to have people in life you can meet up with from time to time, share memories, laugh with over new and old things, see a snapshot of where they are now, and treasure always as friends, even when "doing lunch" should be possible more often, but it's not.