The Best Part

This is an addition, addendum, addawhapawhoopee to my previous post about my birthday weekend. The best part of the whole AmyGras for me was talking to my friend Sharon on the phone for just over 2 hours. You need to know that she lives in Germany. Has lived there for over a year. Before she left I had not seen here for about a year, and since she has been gone, I have visited with her in person one time. That one time was great, as all our conversations have been, but we did not get to see each other until 10 p.m., we stayed talking in her sisters kitchen with other people around (which does not really allow for the conversations we want) until 1:30 a.m. and then it was off to our traditional coffee and a banana split at Denny’s until about 4:00 a.m. when she had to get back to her sisters to leave for a flight at 5:00 a.m. It was not quite the quality time that either of us wanted or needed and in reality, I am not sure how much of it either one of us remember!

Sharon has been my friend since I was about 10 when she moved next door. We were very good friends for a few years, until they moved across town and she ended up in different schools. We sort of stayed in touch (remember no cell phones, no email..things were so much more complicated in the ‘80’s!), but were not very good at it. In high school my friend Devita told me in the first week of school about a girl in her English class that was so cool and I just had to meet her. Funny thing, it was Sharon. It is amazing to me how friends connect, what they see in others, and how those bonds are formed. Well, since then really, we have been true friends. We went through a lot of shit together, none of it that I really want to go into here because it is personal to Sharon and I will not share her secrets and in reality, I probably find it all much more interesting than anyone else does. Suffice it to say, “we came together, fell apart, broke each other’s hearts” and in the end we forged a lifelong bond. Sometimes I think Sharon is the yin to my yang…in the friend way. She “gets” me, more than anyone else besides D. She reminds me of who I am. She is always so full of genuine love, praise, and encouragement for me, probably more than I feel I deserve. She is an amazing creature as her capacity for adventure, romance, and compassion know no bounds. If ever I wanted to just jump off a building for some unknown reason, she is the first person I would call. Not because she would talk me out of it, but because she would say “let me grab my camera, some bungee cords, and a thermos of coffee and we will go together”.

Sharon is that person that I would end up next to in a jail cell with her laughing her incredible full belly laugh and saying “well that was fun, next time let’s try not to get caught”! I love her completely. Her ability to write the most amazing stories is always awe inspiring. She is beautiful, creative, insightful, and knows how to really communicate with others. I have never seen anything like it. She has the most incredible brood of kids who are smart, well behaved, adventurous, generous, and totally free. I do not think I have ever met a family that is so happy to just “be”. She probably does not know this, but I measure myself to her all the time. I always think “how would Sharon handle this” or “what would she do”…that always gives me the right answer or solution. I am so thankful to God that she has graced my life and I look forward to many, many more nights of coffee and banana splits.