"...One is silver,..."

I received a phone call from an old friend the other day. She’s one of those friends that I cannot talk to for six months; and, after just a couple minutes, we will be completely up to speed. We haven’t spoken in quite a while, but we always have good enough conversations that after we get off the phone it feels like we see each other all the time. People like that so rarely come along in life and it’s so easy to loose touch. Having lived a very transient life you think I’d be use to it by now, but I’m not.

We’ve live in Austin just short of a year now and while I’ve spent some time with people at work, and met people through classes. I’ve also hung out with people from the past. But I can’t say I’ve really made any new friends, just acquaintances. It just seems like everybody is so caught up in their own agenda that they just can’t make room for other people anymore. I know I do it too. I have to set limits in order to follow through on the commitments I’ve made.

Is this what adult friendships are like? Is this called growing up? It’s not very much fun. I pine for the days when we would sit around the coffee shop until three in the morning discussing the meaning of life, where no idea was too ridiculous and the more embarrassing the better. Where as sleep deprived and over-caffeinated as we may have been, we were active and passionate about life. Is that why I blog and read other’s blogs? It fulfills that need within the confines of what my body and my commitments can handle?

I crave an influx of people in my life, that’s what keeps me open and aware of new ideas. I can’t stand the superficialities, and blogging seems to cut through to the heart of the matter. It forces me to better clarify who I am. It’s funny though, as much as I may have in common with the new people I meet, it’s nothing the joy I have when I discover an old friend understands these experience too.

Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver, and the other is gold.

-Girl Scout Friendship Song