As I Was Saying....

It has been, by my calculations, one month and two days since I have shown up in this space. I have had no fewer than six persons ask me if I was giving up blogging forever and I have hung my head in shame, because that had not been my intention AT ALL.

I love this space. I love sharing the big things and the big-big things of my life with the internet, but I also love sharing the smaller things that are sometimes bigger than the big things because they are the umami that can be missed among life's sweet and salty. (My wonderful English teacher, Mrs. Lukens, would be horrified at that sentence, but I hope you understand what I'm saying.)

So why would I lead off this post with a photo of an airport luggage cart piled with a duct-taped Rubbermaid tote alongside my stuffed carry-on bag?

That photo, dear ones, is a parable.

I spent last week in Colorado with three of my oldest friends. We have been running around together (yes, that's what we call it) since middle school, which was (she said, horrified) more than half a century ago.  This is a group that didn't see each other much for a couple of decades in the middle of that span--life, you know--but we always kept in touch. And at the end of that intensive stretch of pregnancies and careers, the most far-flung of the group insisted we physically meet.

It was So. Much. Fun.

We talked and talked and talked and then ate and then talked some more. We know each other so well that every conversation was rich and deep, except when it was silly and shallow. We left vowing to meet again every year, and mostly we have done that.

Our last get-away, though was almost two years ago. Somehow time passed and in spite of our determination to prioritize our friendship there was just a lot standing in the way. Job changes. Moves. Aging parent issues. Life.

But the most amazing thing about getting together with old friends is that when you do get together, it feels as if you haven't been away at all. The hours of conversation start with "As I was just saying..." from the moment you step off the plane.

This time the conversations may have been richer, deeper than ever. We're aging, and people usually don't talk much about that when they're going through the process, but we did.

No topic was off limits. We discussed cremation vs. burial, and our fears about today's political realities, and an astounding number of words was expended on the new realities of the post-menopausal female body that NO ONE HAD TOLD US ABOUT.

Then when I bought an item at an antique store that was too big to get into my carry-on, one of my friends (who lives just outside Anchorage) informed me that duct-taped Rubbermaid tubs are also known as "Alaskan luggage," and that she flies with them all the time. It was so helpful to know that, and I wouldn't have known it without her experience.

So the explanation of this parable is this: I may have been absent from this space for a while but there are so many things happening in my life. Good things! Wonderful things! And some that aren't so great (errant facial hair, ladies, amiright?) but might make you realize you're not alone in this struggle. So I plan to be around, and I hope you'll come back, too.

As I was saying....