Yesterday I buzzed around Tri Cities, literally with joy and excitement. Even though I was getting lost while running errands, which is frustrating, I knew what was coming next. Brandi was home and I was headed to see her! And little did I know, Abi (her daughter) was there too!!
Friends walk in and out of our lives. Some walk next to you, or near you, or in front of you or behind you...nevertheless in close proximity for hundreds of miles at a time. As much as it seems you should, you never get to know them. Others share a day's walk and impact your life for ever.
Although Brandi is a good 15 years younger, and I don't think I have even walked around the block with her, it feels as if we have much in common. And yet, if pressed to tell what those commonalities were, I might have to pause and reflect a bit.
I remember the day I met Brandi. I was making an information booth at the community aquatic center for the youth swim club. There she was, at the counter, advocating (err arguing but in a nice sort of way) with the pool manager about something or other. She came over to see what was going on in my little corner of the swim club parent world. And somehow we became friends.
Brandi is an artist. Her personality matches the flair of her paintings; vivid colors painted on plywood, most often over old ledgers, manuscripts, books (I have one painted on pages from the Pilgrim's Progress) and pages from old hymnals. Paintings this bright, based on traditions and beliefs strong in her soul...that's Brandi Dayton. Bright. Vivid. Alive. Grounded.
Brandi is the type of friend you sit next to on the couch, feet up on the coffee table, sipping a beverage and catching up on the news. Its like we just saw each other yesterday. She gives her honest opinion on the latest events in my life. Sometimes that honest view from a friend can be cutting, yet Brandi knows how to say what must be said so that I laugh and cry at truths revealed. I leave her home, brightened. I don't walk to my car and drive away. I drive on to what's next in life's agenda. Our lives travel together along and through "time". .. like in a parallel universe. It all starts up again next time we meet.
One friend walked next to me day in day out, yet not close enough to hear my soul speak. Another strolled into my heart and now hangs out there with no intentions. She just "stays". Time, space and distance don't matter. I always feel that connection. Another shared a few days walk and a lot of wine, connecting through a language barrier to discover we had such similar life experiences although living 10,000 miles away from each other. Surprised to see her one more time as I was about to enter the courtyard at the Cathedral in Santiago, I gave her my favorite "thing", a piece of my identity on The Way, my bright pink hat (now faded from 30 days on the Camino). "You have walked a long way without a hat, I hope this does you well on the rest of your walk."..."I think of the words you say and I remember and I think of them more and soon I understand their meaning, your meaning".
One other companion, when her time to walk with me was through, walked away. Not "walked on" but "walked away" that is different. I am stuck in the place I last saw her as if by her walking away I cannot walk beyond.
I can't walk away. Others can and it is a healthy thing to do, sometimes. I walk on.
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