Time is love

When you're younger you take a lot of things for granted. Like snow in winter and sugar in tea and so many other things you saw and assumed would always be there before you learned about "global warming" {myth} and counting calories. {unfortunate fact.} But there are some surprises in growing up, and one of them I've stumbled over this year is the category of friends.

Being grown-up means busy schedules. It means you won't "bump into" each other as often. Through no fault of my own and through mutually hectic schedules, I haven't seen two of my dearest friends {Joanna and Maryanna} all summer. Okay. Haven't really seen them. And then one of these girls--a friend who knows my heart inside and out--begins a relationship with a guy I'd only heard shadow-things about and it struck me:

Friendships can't survive on accidentals. 

I can't wait for visits to happen and chats to occur. I can't assume that some time or other my schedule will clear and their schedule will clear and we'll have that heartfelt talk I've dreamed of for the last six months.

Relationships are built off of time spent.

Memories made.

Life shared.

But being grown up and having had a halcyon time of it the past six months, I felt out of touch with my sweet girls. I didn't know anything about the ins and outs of their lives lately. Though I had met this David-fellow, I hadn't even heard the whole scoop. I got most of my updates on the gals through a mutual friend who somehow has made time in her grown-up schedule for visiting. I felt like while I'd been focused on politics and family matters they'd gone and grown up and spun out of my reach. A dastardly feeling.

I am a growing fan of select country music and one of my favorite singers, Josh Turner, pegged this lesson in his song "Time is Love"...

But thankfully God--Who set up my summer and fall schedule and lead me down so many intriguing paths--in His mercy is on the look-out to protect friendships with these friends so when I spent the day helping out at one set of friends' farm and got a call from Joanna that she and Maryanna were going to be home by themselves all evening, I rushed to call Mama for permission to go visiting.

Mama said yes... and I got to spend four hours of uninterrupted conversation with these dear girls. Our time was punctuated by hearty laughter, numerous cups of P.G. Tips, a blush or two, a brief match-making splurge in which Joanna and I agreed on the case of spindly men and ourselves and added "short" to the list of no-gos, an animated discussion of Broadway musicals, and the occasional companionable silence spent down in the blue slate den with the pine wainscoting and the roaring wood-stove hard by. I haven't spent an evening like that in too long, and I came away so blessed. Our friendship was renewed and revived and refreshed as I'd always known it would be if only we had the sense to lay aside our craziness and simply be together.

Mare and Jo? I love you both so very much. Thanks for being patient with me while I figure out this whole grown-up thing.

Everyone else? Time is love. Never let it slip through your fingers and fade any relationship in your lives: God first, then your precious family, then the dear friends who know you better than you know yourself. Such things are what makes life worth living. Hold fast to them.