Friends

Ever notice them? I mean really notice them! All shapes and sizes, maybe human, maybe animal, or some other life form. I have a friend, well I really have more the one, whom I went to 1st grade with. Yep we are still friends, still in touch, still going strong. Her mother when to school with my mother way back when. Some times friends kind of sneak up on you. You don't expect them to be friends then they are. What is the criteria for being called a friend?

There are books, articles, movies, songs on what it takes to be a friend. For me I think that it would be really hard to define the criteria for being my friend. There have been many "friends" in my life, who have long ago exited from that relationship. Are they still friends? If I ran into them again would we instantly pick up where we left off? It seems that about 20 years passed between contacts with my first grade friend, then we were back in touch, catching up, sharing our lives as we always had, maybe more so.

It seems that within the last ten years I have renewed several friendships with people who attended high school with me. We were friends long after high school, however after moving to Arizona from New York we "lost touch." Every once in awhile my sister, who was still living in New York, would meet one then pass on information. A few I "ran into" on the Internet, how times have changed. So out of a graduating class of 32 I am currently connected to seven classmates, friends. Sadly out to 32 seven, that I know of, are no longer among the living.

Some friends have chosen not to be friends with me any longer for assorted reasons. I almost chose not to be friends on two occasions, but changed my mind. I am glad to say that in both instances it proved to be a very good decision. There are times I had allot of friends, then times not so many. I could not count all the people who have borne the title "Friend" since the word entered my vocabulary. Funny how that word is used to isolate a select few from the throngs of people who pass through.

I now have friends in England, also Spain. We talk every now and then, each time they refer to me as "friend." First I had friends in the town I grew up in, then I had friends at work, then in other towns, then I had friends in New York and Arizona, then California and Florida, now England and Spain. It is almost overwhelming to think about how many wonderful people have passed through this life; so many of them friends.

Friends and lovers, friends are not lovers or are they?