September 28, 2021

Since the COVID pandemic, much has changed.  Our daily routines have changed.  We stay at home more.  We clean and disinfect more.  We are more cautious, more critical of those who aren't, and more fearful.  It has been during this time in our lives, that I have had more time to reflect, more time to examine my own priorities, and more time to count my blessings.  But, it has also been a time and season of aging, and encountering all that aging entails.

My husband has been diagnosed with colon cancer.  I have had a scare with my diabetes and with my own colon.  He will undergo a series of chemo treatments; I will have about a foot of my colon removed because of pre-cancer cell growth.  My daughter has announced that her marriage is ending after a decade and two children.  All of the "bad news" at a time in our lives when we had assumed would be those "golden years" you hear about.

Because of the restrictions that COVID brought us, many of us are taking to online communication -- Zoom calls, Facebook, Tik-Tok, and other digital platforms.  Coincidently, this need for alternative communication has given rise to a re-connection with old friends and family.

The tightest friendship bonds I have ever had were with my high school girlfriends, and about a year ago, we all found ourselves on Facebook, sharing our lives, trips, children, grandchildren and pets.  It occurred to me that we should have a Zoom reunion; a closed, invitation-only get together.  And so we did.  We now enjoy a messaging group known as the "Lamesa Rowdy Girl Reunion".

While we share our lives, just as we did openly on Facebook, we have evolved into a much deeper sharing -- of our sorrows, our family dynamics, our special prayer needs, and our encouraging words.  Reflections and reverie sprinkled with humor, insight and tears, wrapped in prayer.  

Friendships - the kinds that are resilient, anchored in the bonds of youth and the memories of the most important developmental phase of our lives - simply cannot be broken.  These bonds are set and refined like gold by the Master of all creation.  Set to withstand time, distance or the scars of life.  I am grateful that while I don't see these women, could not find their front porch if my life depended on it, or can't recall all of their grandchildren's' birthdays, I do have their names written on my heart, their love tucked in my soul.  I do know without any qualms that their friendship and support will be with me till the day I die, and beyond.

Thank you Cynthia, Sandi, Lori, Vickie, Pam, Cathy, Lisa and Charlotte - the Lamesa Rowdy Girls Zoom Reunion. You all shore up my strength, light up my darkest days and remind me that we don't ever walk alone.