Being *this age* is a blessing. My grandmother didn't live this long, and a few friends have been lost along the way, way too soon.
I like that life has taught the difference between what seems important and what really is; why being nice is better than seeming nice; and that the trail of someone's life always leads somewhere.
I have a friend, that's all I'll say about the gal who got me through the tough comprehensive exams in college. We've been friends for 39 years, an astonishing 68% of my life.
I uncomfortably lay in bed sometimes and as I adjust my position wonder what it would be like not to be able to do that. I stand in front of the mirror washing my face and brushing my teeth, knowing that she never has. The invisible things we do for ourselves are her biggest challenges.
But she shines brightly elsewhere. Life has not been easy but she grabbed it with gusto anyway. She had to wait for what she wanted but she traveled overseas; she moved away from home; she met and married the love of her life; she found opportunities and purpose in outreach and blogging about her faith.
The challenges of age and health and finances plague us now and I think of her often, how she faces obstacles and dissolves them away, hoping I am forged of the same steel.
She and her husband are on our minds this morning, as we project our energy and love over the miles, to strengthen them in the days ahead.
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear."
~Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, 1894
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