To the ones I love

I was sitting here today
missing a friend
and thinking about
old friends.

This week I gave a gift
to an old friend....someone I have
known for many years,
much water under the bridge.
In recent years we seem to have drifted apart
though our lives intersect on many points.
I was going through some stuff in my bedroom and
came across an old book of poetry this friend gave me
on my birthday many years ago.
I remembered how this friend always carefully selected
gifts for friends---not that there was a lot of money spent
or a gift that would draw attention to itself,
but it was the sentimental factor.
"I got you this because of this reason."
So when it was time to pick up a gift for this friend,
I remembered this. And tried to follow suite
by selecting a gift with some point of significance.
It was later, after the gift had been given and received,
that the friend came to me to tell me that it had meant
something special. The friend appreciated my gesture.
It wasn't a big thing, just a moment.
Just a connection.
Just two people saying "Hey....I care about you."
It made me wonder why I'm not seeking out
moments like these more, why it seems so easy
for friendship to grow stale as we grow older.
Our schedules are busy, maybe we chose paths that
take us away from friends whether by physical distance
or in the difference between the lifestyles we lead,
maybe our kids don't get along or our spouses don't
get along...there are so many things that can
separate us, letting the bridges between me and
that friend fall into disrepair.
I don't like that.
I don't like little foxes spoiling the vines.
I love my friends.








Here's an old poem
by Rod McKuen
with a similar sentiment:

In Case You Didn't Know

Some days up ahead
will come down empty
and some years fuller
than the fullest one we've known before.

Today has been
the best day yet.
I thought
you ought to know that,
and I thought it time
that I said THANK YOU
for whatever might have
passed between us
that in your mind
you might have felt
missed my attention.

It didn't
and it doesn't
and it won't.