6-17-16
I got this in the mail yesterday with a card with this quote on the front by Christy Evans, “Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them but you know they are there.”
My faraway best friend sent me this bracelet in the mail and told me that when she saw the bracelet and read its meaning, she knew I needed to have one of my own because it reminded her of me.
It’s a Lokai bracelet and the beads have elements from the highest and lowest points on Earth. The white bead has water from Mt. Everest and the black bead holds mud from the Dead Sea. The bracelet is to serve as a reminder to seek balance, “staying humble during life’s peaks and hopeful during its lows.” (www.mylokai.com).
As I think about life and some of the things I want my children to understand, this tops the list–how to navigate the inevitable highs and lows of life. But even more than that is the gesture behind it: I want them to know that good friends–the very, very best kind–are always with us, no matter the distance.
Some of my truest friends aren’t even women I see daily or weekly, monthly or even yearly. They don’t live in the same town I do; they don’t live in the same state I do; some don’t even live on the same coast I do. While our paths do cross from time to time, the friend who sent me this card and this gift, I haven’t seen in over seven years. She’s never met my son or daughter and has instead watched me become a mother from afar. She’s never been to the home I sold or see the desk at which I write, but she’s supported me on the page. She is a kindred spirit and after all this time, she thinks of me.
I guess I want my children to know that life’s inevitable ups and downs are more easily navigated with a friend and that sometimes, friends are far away but near when you need them. And we do the same from them.
Thanks for Mothering the Divide with me as we all try to stay humble and hopeful, all the while looking at the stars in the night sky and thinking of our faraway friends. To my sweet and faraway friends: All of my love to you as you’ve mothered all the divides with me from afar.