Old Friends and the Long View

My dear friend came last week.  She boarded a plane in busy Philadelphia and arrived in busy Denver. She went to the VERY end of the Denver airport concourse, walked across the tarmac and boarded a much smaller plane to Rapid City.  Why was she surprised when she got off the plane, walked across the tarmac again and out onto the edge of the prairie... not busy Philadelphia?

Her 2PM flight was the last of the day in Rapid City. TSA employees said farewell to each other. The airport looks like a bus terminal anyway and it's being remodeled.  No coffee shop, no friend to pick her up- I had the time wrong and was on my way.

SO there she stood... and it was quiet. Still. Silent. Big and empty. Definitely not Philadelphia.

We are old friends - we had babies together when our husbands were young and invincible.  We've watched each other's children grow. We stayed at their home and they at ours. She and her husband drove down to see Bill as he was dying. The kind of friend that you don't have to spend much time with to pick up the conversation again.  A life-long friend.

Gee, where is all the usual tourist traffic?

Just around the corner from Mount Rushmore.  George himself. 

And as we drove around in a sepia world of  fresh snow on dark trees and pale stones, we talked. Life, kids, husbands.  New seasons and old.  Hopes and regrets.  What we hide from ourselves and from each other.  What we want to be when we grow up.  The questions of life to dig into with a friend for life.

The long view. 

I thought of George- up there on his mountain. Looking over a prairie landscape so unlike his native Virginia.   He has a long view from up there. 

And sometimes we have the long view for our friends.  And they for us.  Life is too hard to figure out alone, find a friend and see what their view is.  Be real and honest. Let them tell you, "You can't see the big forest because of all the trees right in your line of sight. But I can. I've been there too. It's ok. It's going to be ok"  The long view. 

The silence was good for my friend as it's good for me. The big empty spaces reminded us of the hardy pioneer women who walked here,  rode wagons, birthed babies, grew flowers and cattle.  Women who created a life in this fragile and yet, hostile climate. Women who lived with life and death,  abundance and want,  living a life that may or may not have had the long view.  Each generation must chose to lift up their heads and look. 

She told me she liked that I was making a new life, in a new place.  She saw the big picture in my life. That's what friends do- they point out the good things that are happening. They lift one another up. They gaze out at the distance and offer each other hope. 

Are you that life friend for someone?  Or do you long for one?  In a world that seems to focus on surviving, not thriving... we have this great wisdom from CS Lewis-  

C.S. Lewis Friendship Quotes

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-friendship-20-good-scripture-quotes/#ixzz1k2qIuaZJ

Let's thrive together- as friends! 

The adventure always includes friends......