Funny the things that trigger the release of emotions waiting to come out. As I prepared the gifts for wrapping this evening for one of my best friend’s baby shower tomorrow, feeling the soft, cotton fabric of the tiny washcloth as I opened it made me feel the first serious feeling of it all – she’s having a baby.
My heart was warm, melted even, sobered, and sentimental. I almost felt as I held the small, baby-soft cloth in my hand that I was holding that new life, that new little boy. The beauty and miracle and preciousness of this new beginning was trying to sit upon me, and I let it for a moment. I sat there surrounded by the wrappings and the gifts to put into the bag, and then slowly began putting the gift together.
My friend Patty came along with my mom and I to Target today. We printed out the registry and set off to the baby section. We talked how it probably wouldn’t really hit us until tomorrow – oh, would you LOOK at that little hat??
Patty was the first friend I made when I moved here eleven years ago. We saw each other from across the classroom on orientation day, both new to the year-old school and with our parents. There was an immediate connection – we walked away each feeling we already had a best friend there, even though we’d hardly even had a conversation. Sometimes you just know a friend right away, know someone who is going to play a part in your life forever.
Patty and I are like-minded in many ways. One thing that has never changed at all is how we laugh – HORSE laugh – whenever we’re together. There’s a common sarcasm and camaraderie, a like sense of humor that has been there from the beginning. Maybe that trait of our friendship hasn’t done much to improve our characters, but it’s certainly relieved a lot of stress and deepened the smile lines. Add that to eleven years of life, and you have a fast friendship.
Cori, the mother-to-be, I also met at this new school eleven years ago. She wasn’t exactly of a “like personality” to Patty and I, but even though the first two years were mostly spent in REALLY getting under each other’s skins, I think I can speak for Patty as well as myself when I say that, like when she and I met, there was immediately the same sense - in a different way, at first – about Cori. She was just gonna be there, just as solid a lifelong friend. That she has been, and as we’ve grown into young women, we’ve gotten all the closer and laughed all the harder.
Patty tells me not to take the picture; Cori laughs knowing I will anyway
“Wait, let me get some lip gloss on…”
…not ready!
We’re all the same age, and have endured our shares of the ups and downs. We’ve grown and changed a great deal in our own individual ways. But even though our schedules don’t often allow the three of us to be together as we always were in our school days, the friendship between us has grown so much, so deep. Each has her own relationship with the other two, all braided together to make one common bond. The differences and tension along the way have only strengthened it.
Now, here we are, welcoming Cori’s baby into the world. She’s the first close friend of mine who is my age to have a baby, and that’s a bit of a milestone. It can also serve as a checkpoint of self evaluation, and to remind you of the different timing of things in different lives, mixing in with the common places we share. There’s so much wonder in it all.
I thank God so very much for the friendship of these two beautiful young women, and for this new life Cori is bringing into the world. Patty and I will go to the shower together – we haven’t seen Cori since she was expecting, and so it’s going to be a bit of a shock – and then, afterward, will likely have a margarita and a large amount of chips and salsa together. And we’ll look forward to Cori’s new arrival… and the time she can have one with us again!
Here’s to blessed new life, and to blessed friends. May this boy’s life be as full of such love as our three lives are.
apparently we went from “silly pose” to “serious” without taking my scarf down… Burro Loco, November 2005.
