Celebratory Adios

The fork in the road approaches quickly and I must walk down one side while my friends walk the other.  It is a challenge to not look back and wish to walk alongside them still.   And yet, the destination ahead beckons with unrelenting voice and light enough to guide my next step.   Parting ways, though, requires an adios... a good-bye for now.

It was 1977 when I met most of these ladies at church.   We were little girls... a lifetime ahead of us.   Our discussions were filled with laughter, we were oblivious to the world around us.   We giggled our way through middle school, high school, college and some rough spots in life... my church girls.

Our lives intertwined in a time without cell phones, internet or video games.   We wrote notes to one another instead of texts, we traded shoes in sunday school, we jumped in a bus to ride to a mysterious destination with our youth group, we loved and were loved, our hearts were broken and mended.    My life story is inextricably tied to theirs... even though we don't see one another near often enough.

We shared a lunch filled with laughter this weekend; and a fond farewell for now.   So... to my FUMC girls, I bid you a sweet adios.  To the adventurous ones of you who plan to come see me, I will keep a steaming cup of Honduran coffee waiting for you.   To those of you who cannot stomach the idea of a dirt runway, we'll share some chips and salsa in Texas and share tales of our children in 2011.  Can't wait.

Adios amigas... te amo mucho

And to Staci... you are MY hero.   Thank you... for all of the years!!