Thursday, November 11, 2010

Laughter

So I believe that life is a gift that each of us has and none of us asked for. It is also sprinkled with friends who come and go. More go than remain. Though sometimes God reaches down and drops old ones back in again.

A thousand years ago when I was in college I fell in with this magnificent group of friends. It was the time when we had all left home and discovering who we were as people and we all held one another’s hands into us becoming us. When you do that you realize that love is all around you.

Then you graduate and everyone scatters to the four corners of the world and your friends become memories or stories that you tell. You get on with your life, find a career, start a family, do well, screw up, start over and eventually become who you are.

And there is no going back.

But for those of us who believe in miracles, and I am one, sometimes you do. Through the creation of Face Book we all found one another again. We stared at one another’s pictures and looked at how we’ve aged. We admired one another’s children and marveled at what each of us have done.

Then we started messaging and talking and the laughter returned easily. Then we decided that the word needed to become flesh and we all met at my house one day and we laughed. We told stories and remembered. And we learned something. That intense love that we shared all of those years ago remains.

Since the reunion, we talk almost every day either as a collective group, or individually. We call one another offering encouragement and advice and support. Three of the four of us are going through major life transitions and we’re relying on the one who is not to be there to support us all if things don’t work out.

I think that one of the things that gets you through life is laughter. If you are in a place where you don’t laugh or with someone who doesn’t help you laugh then God’s gift of life is reduced and it is like we are throwing it back in her face.

Now these friends of mine … well we can make one another laugh. A lot! Individually we are humorous. Collectively we are a riot!

And we do not let up. We keep egging one another on. One continuously topping the other and I find myself spitting out my drink because of the unexpected laughter.

So because I truly love these people I will not tell you that their names are Dedra, Mark and Mitch. They would kill me if they thought their friends might know that we enjoy each other so much.

So much for today’s musing. I’ve got to let it pee.