The years slip away like slivers of sunlight on the dashboard as I drive. I haven't seen her in more than a year, haven't been to her house in more than seven. Left her almost twelve years ago to pursue the excitement of new love, uprooted and abandoned everyone and everything. And sitting at her table, catching up over glasses of wine, everything is both exactly the same and utterly changed. Children that were children when I left are now grownups, parents. Marriages have ended, for both of us. Careers developed. The lines around our eyes are deeper and infinitely more plentiful, yet comforting because on both of our faces they tell us that despite the pain and struggle in our lives, we have each continued to find reasons to smile. A lot. Because you don't get those smile lines from anything but.
We haven't sat at the table like this, just us, in forever, but it seems like was just yesterday. These are the friendships you treasure. Where no matter how countless the days or the distance between the last time and this, it feels as if nothing has ever changed. It is as easy and effortless as breathing.
Still so much in common, and so many shared memories.
"We have to do this more often" we say as she drops me at the airport. Yes, we do. Oh, yes we do. I feel like I just found something I'd forgotten I lost.
