Life before 2008 08 Sep 2007 10:19 am
What a Difference a Friend Makes….
If ever a week had a theme, that would be what this week’s was. The message was everywhere: a week ago this town had a festival and the Three Who Speak To Us did so and then Became Five, resulting in a dinner invite. And who knew kindred spirits were so close all this time?! Best: they have children the ages of our two who had no friends here at all and all of a sudden the world around looks different. New friends came via email, old friends came via phone. Our homeschool group’s newsletter came out and the first image to appear was a scene of a village. I spoke with a new potential client who’s theme is “people connecting to make something better together”…collaboration at it’s finest. The first cub scout activity of the year was this week and I was amazed at how comforting it was to see a group of familiar faces, though distance is changing the dynamic that once was. That new friend up the hill has already introduced us to more potential new friends and when I woke up this morning after the season’s first chilly night, I realized that in the course of a week our outlook had changed.
It matters that our friends and contacts are not just *only* close to an hour away. For the past year, our church has been far away, our friends far away, our resources far away. Readers to this site know that what has been close by, in contrast, has been less than peachy. It occurs to me that meeting a friend can be just as life-altering as the “turn on a dime” sentences; I envision one person struggling to move a large load and feeling an immediate boost (and making more progress) with the addition of just one other person who has come along side.
On Wednesday I saw a sticker on a truck that hailed back to an old youth group slogan they used to preach to us: “I Stand Alone”. I know the intent of the message is to show strength of character in the face of negative peer pressure but this week I only thought, “how sad”. Standing alone is not nearly so productive or gratifying as Standing With. No one is an island right? The sticker only reminded me how lonely it can be with no one at your side.
We’ve long suspected that there were little pockets of so-called “outsiders” around here, all feeling pretty close to the same thing, but not connected together very well. It appears such is the case and we wonder if there isn’t more truth to the advice we were given that it would take a few years to “settle” into this environment. We didn’t want to believe that but maybe we were wrong. This place sans friends versus this place with them is nearly unrecognizable to us and we at least know now to take our time in making upcoming decisions. Things look different indeed.
