Friends For Life

I have recently emerged from a four day cocoon, during which I re-visited my youth. The 3rd annual '68 Girls of Athens' Retreat at Amelia Island was a fun, festive, laughter-filled time of relaxation and renewal. It also allowed the opportunity to catch-up on children, grandchildren, old times, new adventures and all the things that once were. As we mature, I think we become well aware that those are the things - good and bad - that have made us each who we are today.

It astounds me that we slip right back into being part of something that could have so easily been lost. But we carry on without a hitch, much more comfortable today in our saggy skin then we would have been in those earlier insecure days. We look at old photos of ourselves in kindergarten, in elementary school, junior high and high school. Gazing back at us from all of those little bits of pictorial history are eyes full of hope and promise and eagerness to get on with life. Since those times, most of us have suffered misery and misfortune, jubilation and joy - all those things that just come with time and this thing called life. But we press on with whatever wisdom we have extrapolated from all those life experiences, and still we look forward. It is a most remarkable thing and these are most remarkable women.

Through grace I was born in Athens, GA and had the fortune of garnering friends who have been part of my life for all these many years. And until we are so infirm that we are unable to gather, or until God calls us home or comes back, those of us who are able will continue to reunite and share tales of past pain and glories, present strivings and successes and future dreams and yearnings.