JOURNEYS, JOYS, AND RECONNECTIONS

I moved a lot when I was growing up.   I lived in Nashville, TN, Peoria, IL, Memphis, TN and Houston, TX, and I attended 10 different schools during my 12 years of elementary and secondary education.  This offered me a great opportunity to learn the art of making new friends, adjusting to new environments, and embracing change.  I’m someone who loves adventure, new experiences, and constant change.  In fact, even as an adult, I get stir crazy after spending even a few days at home.  I’m grateful for the life I had growing up, and for the opportunity to have lived in so many interesting places.  I’m thankful that my parents provided me with unique opportunities to explore music, sports, education, and culture.  I am thankful to have been raised by creative, open-minded, well-educated parents who understood how very much I needed to experience the wide world around me.

I’m also grateful for the wonderful friends I’ve had the privilege of knowing throughout my life.  Thanks to social media, I’ve been able to reconnect with friends from all of the places I’ve lived in throughout my nearly 47 years of life.  If you are a person who lived in the same house, grew up in the same town, and attended the same school all of your life, you probably can’t relate to this need for people connection.  For you, your connection with people is rooted in the constant "place" where you grew up, and it may be something you’ve always taken for granted.  But for me, home means people, not place.  I felt completely at home in every house and city I ever lived in, but it always felt temporary to me, but the people in my life never felt temporary.   I knew then that I was bonding with very special people.  But I know now that I never allowed myself to emotionally settle in any particular place or location, which I'm finding is very uncommon.  Maybe I knew instinctively that I wouldn't be there forever. 

I moved to a new school nearly every year during my formative years.  I lived in 10 different houses (and my mom made them all incredibly beautiful and comfortable for our family with her gifts of decorating, cooking, entertaining, and hospitality).  I have precious memories from each and every place I’ve lived.  Unfortunately, I lost touch with many dear friends over time.  However, with the advent of the internet, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and many other social media channels, I have experienced the unexpected gift of friendship reconnection.  I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to reconnect with the girl who sat beside you in the first grade, with your pee-wee cheer squad girlfriends, with your tennis team, with your high school choir director, with your sorority sisters, and with the boy who took you to the senior prom.  

Even though we were just kids growing up in middle class America in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, we made a connection with each other.  We were a chapter in each other’s “story”, for a season.  We made lots of wonderful memories, some BIG, funny mistakes, and had a really great time growing up together.  Every one of these people that I’ve had the honor of reconnecting with is someone I am privileged to call my friend today.  Although life has presented a wide range of challenges for all of us, each of these old/new friends is truly amazing.  They are married, single, gay, straight, raising kids, rescuing pets, volunteering, they own their own businesses, they are investing in careers that matter to them, preaching, teaching, leading their communities, thriving in business, caring for the people in their lives, creating music and art, coaching sports – they are all following their passions.  They are great parents, spouses, children to aging parents, and are close to their siblings.  Some of them are now widowed, battling chronic and terminal illnesses, have lost children, jobs, and have gone through the pain of divorce.  Some are dealing with wayward adult children, disappointment, the loss of parents,  death of siblings, family suicide, depression, loneliness, infertility, the loss of love, and are working to pick up the broken pieces of life.  It is an incredible gift to pick up with someone and re-enter their life story after a 25 to 30 year gap in communication.  And with most of these lovely friends, it’s as if no time at all has passed.  I am proud of these hundreds of friends, who are ALL positive, creative, generous human beings.  You haven’t let the challenges of life conquer you, you’ve risen above them, and you keep fighting the good fight.

So, here’s to reconnecting with the people that matter!  Thanks for your opening your lives and hearts again to me, and for your life-long friendships.  You truly inspire me with your love, your lives, and your laughter. 

This post is lovingly dedicated, to the thousands of students, teachers, coaches and friends who were part of my life from 1974 to 1990, at the following schools:  Mt. Juliet Elementary, Bartlett Elementary, Woodbrook Elementary, Ellendale Elementary, Altruria Elementary, Bartlett Elementary (again), Shadowlawn Middle School, Briarcrest High School, Klein High School, Belmont University, and Middle Tennessee State University.