Childhood Friends

"We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected.” ~ Ben Okri

Today I gathered with a few friends with whom I graduated from High School. We met in Junior High and began to hang out. One lives in California these days and so we have a mini-reunion when he comes home during the summer. We usually go to an old haunt and today, despite looking like we are in Venice, we are at a pizza joint we used to go to after school dances or on a Friday night when about eight of us would need a place to hang because our parents had had enough of us.

Sigh. I have such fond memories of my school days and the friends I made. Who would have known the curve balls that have come our way or the joys that we would have experienced? One of this foursome was the valedictorian of our graduating class. I seem to remember vaguely words of encouragement and hope. I suppose each of us had dreams then….post-secondary education, career, marriage, travel, and unarticulated expectations. What did we really know about anything back then?

Some of our class has not made it this far. We have had several former classmates die. At 50, I am grateful to not be amongst those. We cannot explain the riddles of our lives. Why am I still here, but my baby sister gone? For someone who never thought she would go on with schooling, I did. My mom just wanted to have me get married and have children. Funny fate! That has not happened to date. Dreams get all twisted and turned around indeed. I feel my dreams have been fulfilled though in so many ways and when I get together with my childhood friends and we compare notes, reminisce, and stand solidly in the present, it is a reminder that I did not do this journey alone. I had good folks, walking alongside with their own dreams. Today we even discussed the very concept of this quote and wondered where we would each be at the end of our jubilee year. What lies ahead for each of us? Life can definitely alter our plans. I pray that God will bless each of our plans to be in accordance to the One who plants the desires and dreams in our hearts in the first place.

Peace,

Suzanne