Please bear with me as I write today because I have all sorts of little snippets of thought running around in my head and I'm hoping that if I write them down, somehow, they will begin to make sense.
I remember my brother Bob telling me in my early teens that friends you choose, family you're born with. I am fortunate in that I was friends with Bob and my best friend is my sister Patricia. Not everyone is lucky enough to have that, I am and for that I am truly grateful. I miss being physically closer to my sister and also to my son Jon and his girlfriend Michelle. I like to think I'm friends with them as well.
This week I've had the to opportunity to visit with a childhood friend who I haven't physically seen for awhile but whom I speak to regularly. Being with or talking to this friend helps to ground me even though I wasn't aware of it until after the fact. I don't know how it is, I'm not sure if I've written about this before or not, but the friends I grew up with in Terrace are a huge and very important part of my life. I have made many great friends over the years both in and out of Terrace but the friends from childhood, those who went through thick and thin with me, it is as if they know a part of me that other people don't. I believe in my heart that it is because they helped to shape who I became but they also see the 'original' me....the child inside. Also, it isn't as though these friendships are stagnant. As I reconnect with people from my youth I learn more about them and even more about me.
I've spoken to many people about the connectedness of my friends from childhood and discover that not many of them have the same connections from their childhood friends. Which has prompted me over the years to wonder what it was about growing up where I did that made it different for me and my friends. I sometimes wonder if it was the isolation factor. We grew up in a geographically distant and during the winter a physically isolated area. In order to survive we relied on each other in ways that people in cities don't have to. We reveled in snow days when the whole town shut down. We built snowforts, played softball, rode bikes, picnicked at the lake, fished together. We partied together and somehow through all the time and geographical distance, we have stuck together. Those bonds are not easily broken.
I'm sure there are more bits and pieces floating around in my brain but they aren't surfacing right now so I think I'll stop for now and continue later.....or not! lol But I did need to get this out while it was there and able to be grasped!
Have a wonderful day!
Barbara
I remember my brother Bob telling me in my early teens that friends you choose, family you're born with. I am fortunate in that I was friends with Bob and my best friend is my sister Patricia. Not everyone is lucky enough to have that, I am and for that I am truly grateful. I miss being physically closer to my sister and also to my son Jon and his girlfriend Michelle. I like to think I'm friends with them as well.
This week I've had the to opportunity to visit with a childhood friend who I haven't physically seen for awhile but whom I speak to regularly. Being with or talking to this friend helps to ground me even though I wasn't aware of it until after the fact. I don't know how it is, I'm not sure if I've written about this before or not, but the friends I grew up with in Terrace are a huge and very important part of my life. I have made many great friends over the years both in and out of Terrace but the friends from childhood, those who went through thick and thin with me, it is as if they know a part of me that other people don't. I believe in my heart that it is because they helped to shape who I became but they also see the 'original' me....the child inside. Also, it isn't as though these friendships are stagnant. As I reconnect with people from my youth I learn more about them and even more about me.
I've spoken to many people about the connectedness of my friends from childhood and discover that not many of them have the same connections from their childhood friends. Which has prompted me over the years to wonder what it was about growing up where I did that made it different for me and my friends. I sometimes wonder if it was the isolation factor. We grew up in a geographically distant and during the winter a physically isolated area. In order to survive we relied on each other in ways that people in cities don't have to. We reveled in snow days when the whole town shut down. We built snowforts, played softball, rode bikes, picnicked at the lake, fished together. We partied together and somehow through all the time and geographical distance, we have stuck together. Those bonds are not easily broken.
I'm sure there are more bits and pieces floating around in my brain but they aren't surfacing right now so I think I'll stop for now and continue later.....or not! lol But I did need to get this out while it was there and able to be grasped!
Have a wonderful day!
Barbara
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