Old friends...

are truly a blessing.  And it's good to see them now and again - even after over twenty years!  I had the pleasure of meeting my best friend from high school. Beth, for breakfast at First Watch this morning.  We hadn't really seen each other since our ten year class reunion way back in 1986 - and we really didn't get much of a chance to visit then because it was a sort of awkward, carry-in dinner at the school with our old principal.  Beth missed our twenty year class reunion; in fact, Scott and I and our respective spouses were the only class members who showed up for that - but we had a nice visit and a nice dinner anyway.  And yes, we went to a small private high school - there were eleven people in our graduating class!  Anyhow, life gets in the way of the things we have good intentions of doing and well, we have at least kept in touch over the years at the holidays.  Enter Facebook - and the week of my birthday, Beth invited me to breakfast.  Unfortunately, I didn't read the message until some time later - I have no excuse other than stupidity when it comes to Facebook - and we ended up meeting for a lovely meal this morning.  It's true what they say about real friends - you can not see each other for eons and when you do finally get together, there is no awkwardness and you fall right back into talking and sharing as though you had seen one another last week.  We're both basically still the same - just older and perhaps a little wiser - and it was so good to catch up.  In addition to filling each other in on our families and mutual friends, we finally shared things that we were both going through in high school.  We are both oldest daughters and we both have a tendency to keep things bottled up inside - nothing major - but things that had we been taught to keep to ourselves, stuff about our families and things that happened at home.  I wish I'd known then that I really did have a kindred spirit to commiserate with!  I'm sure it would have made both of our teenage years a lot easier to deal with, knowing that everyone's family is dysfunctional to some degree. I giggling to myself now at the things we used to talk about: which boy our classmate Dru would date next, what our friend Scott's next bizarre theory would be or if Beth's boyfriend would finally work up the nerve to kiss her good night.  Our lives took different paths: I went away to college (what a relief!) and Beth chose to go to school in town.  Her boyfriend, Mark, now her husband of 31 years, finally did work up the nerve to kiss her good night and they have two lovely children, aged 19 and 25.  Beth and Mark are the hardworking and successful owners of several health food stores, proof that good things do happen to good people.  I am blessed to have such a wonderful friend all these years and I have promised myself not to let such a long while go by before I make time to get together with Beth again.