Keys on a Ring

I got a call from a really great college friend the other day. We keep in touch two or three times a year, and a little more than that after her husband died a couple of years ago. She was my college roommate, my Maid of Honor. Even though she's in the City and I'm in the Capitol city, we rarely get together except when one of us happens to be passing through.

I carry an interesting assortment of keys to the car, house, rentals, safe deposit box, mailbox, file cabinet, and storage unit. There's even a couple of weird ones that I have forgotten why they were important. They dangle from little pewter flippers that remind me of Colette and my happy snorkeling excursions. On a smaller key ring off the main are the things I can't part with: my brother's house key, although he doesn't live there now, and my dad's and mom's keys, who are long passed away. I guess you could say my keyring represents the Key Things in my life.

Alanna's call got me thinking about maintenance and how much I miss her on my Key ring. Like old stucco that chips away from a foundation, our Key relationships also erode (our spouses, our children, our friends) without noticing the damage caused by our lack of upkeep. And then one day, Bam! there's a big chunk of wall on the floor. The point is, change is inevitable if we do nothing to stop it.

Life is very distracting. There are a lot of really great things going on - new cars, new jobs, new friends, new towns - and it is easy to talk ourselves into thinking the old Keys will always be there. But it takes effort and passion to maintain anything, especially hearts, and family and old friends are part of our living heritage. More than any other, their stories and anecdotes punctuate our lives with warmth, humor and a sense of belonging.