One Is Silver and the Other Is Gold...

I call her my "Cruise Friend," because we met, yes, while on a cruise. It was many years ago. Ken won a trip when he was building homes for a developer. We were in high cotton -- got to fly on a real plane all the way to Miami, get on a big ole boat and then pony up for all the food we could eat (even half a dozen of them chocolate molten lava cakes, just for asking).  When dinner was over, we'd stagger back to our room and there'd be cute little animals made out of towels sitting right there on our bed. We curled up like baby squirrels and slept like babies to the sway of the ocean. I've never been sophisticated and never will be, even though I adore Mozart. 

Our group had assigned seating at dinner. While getting acquainted with the folks around us, I happened to mention that we homeschooled our children. One of the ladies pointed to a sweet face across the table and said that she was also teaching her kids. Back then, we were considered extremely strange to do such things...some people thought we needed our heads examined (we started way back in 1989). Kathy and I immediately struck up a conversation that has never truly ended. Now, some twenty years later, we can spend an entire day talking and then have to force ourselves to shut up and go home. We've laughed, cried, prayed for everything under the sun, told our stupid stories, gossiped, asked forgiveness, complained, fixed a few problems, agonized over our kids, griped about politics, pondered the universe and shared all things about the Lord we both love. We often speak of both our sweet Daddies who are in heaven, think about what they must be experiencing and wonder if they know each other yet. Sister from a different mother. 

She is also an Island Friend. These are my busy friends who are busy living on their universe while I'm busy living on mine. We wave across the way, occasionally row our boats to meet up somewhere, and then pick up where we left off. We think the best of each other and trust that friendship is something lifelong, treasured, rare. That trust extends between "trips" and knows that neither time nor trouble will rust our boats. My old Sunday School teacher said that scriptural adage: "A man of many friends comes to ruin..." She also pointed out that we might have lots of acquaintances and relationships along the way, but you normally only get a few truly good friends in your lifetime, sometimes only a handful. I think this is true. 

Tonight, we met up for her birthday, a month-and-a-half late. We squeezed thousands of words into a few hours. I ate too much while she behaved, as usual. I wish I could learn her iron-willed moderation, for longer than a minute. When the evening wound down and I was driving back home, I thanked God for friends like her. We're planning on a whole lot more talking, even if it means we stretch it into the next millennia or so. It's probably gonna take that long...