The only constant is change

How strange it is that after three years, we end the weekend with a trip to one of our old haunts, near the high school that saw us through the peak of our friendship. It was unreal, the same people in the same place. I've often heard people say they would love to revisit a distant memory. This was it. But the benches that we once sat on, the automatic doors that once opened for us, the parking lot we once loitered in--none of that retained any of its original, life-shaping meaning.

So many things have changed in these three years. The decline started after we decided to move on.

New relationships, transferred colleges, trading one addiction for another, different lifestyles, unexpected interests, turning of age, increased mileage, deepened spirituality, falling away from God, divorce, new jobs, family struggles....

We are strangers now.

Our friendship was locked away in a time capsule, and I was happy to leave it behind. It had become a distant memory that no longer brought a smile to my face, only ambivalence and an occasion "Oh, yeah." Now that the time capsule has been opened, I am engulfed by a torrent of memories. And also disappointed at the superficiality that blankets what used to be genuine and meaningful.

Oh, well.

I would never wants things to go back to the way they were. That would be the most terrible punishment. We would never have anything new to talk about. No exciting news, no motivation, no forward motion. Reminiscing is fine, and I do it often, but I am the type of person who could never be satisfied with stagnancy.

So, anyways....thanks. Thanks for once being a big part of my life. Whether or not I ever tell you, you really did make a big difference in shaping the way I interact with people, the way I think, the way I do the things I do.

Time to make some new memories.