We spent last weekend at a cabin in the woods near Mt. Rainier in Washington State. One of Brian’s best friends, Kevin, met us there with his family (wife and 5 month old daughter). They live in Colorado Springs but were in Portland so we all decided to meet halfway for a weekend together.
I posted a bunch of pictures from our holiday at my Facebook page, if you’re interested.
It was, unfortunately, incredibly hot and the cabin (built in 1923), while picturesque, was very stuffy. I was rather uncomfortable but still managed to have a great time. It’s nice to spend time with old friends, playing with your kids and talking everything from the spiritual practices of yoga to politics to birth stories!
It made me realise that I’m very thankful for friendship in our lives. Brian doesn’t quite “get” this for me; he is still very good friends with people he grew up with. His parents live in the same house that they bought before they were even married! He had a lot of stability and continuity in his relationships. So for him, it’s not odd to have friends for more than 20 years even though he’s not yet 30 (but closing in!!!). We moved around a few times as a kid and, of course, as kids or even teenagers, you lose touch as life gets busy. You think you’re always going to make new friends, always going to meet new people and create a new social support structure. As we’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that’s not always the case. And so I’ve had to make a conscious effort to maintain friendships (even amongst family!) as we move and change. And now I realise that I’ve got friends in my life that I’ve had for more than 10 years! And they are good friends. The kind of friends that, even if we don’t talk on the phone all the time, I could call them anytime. We stay in touch, we keep up with each other, we send pictures, we share memories of each other from “back when”. And that’s a great feeling for me that, even if we can’t run across the hall to each other’s rooms like we did in university or across the street to each other’s houses like we did as young marrieds, we are all still committed to the friendship and would be there for one another in a heartbeat.
For instance, Kevin was there (actually in the room, pretending to be asleep!) when Brian and I had our first kiss. (He can tease us mercilessly about it, as a result.) It’s fun to have people in your life that knew you before you were even together and now here you are, in a cabin in Washington of all places, with your kids and life still ahead.
