It's so awesome to have friendships that just pick up where they left off, no matter how long it's been since you last saw each other. Seems that this summer has been a great one for re-establishing relationships for me.
A couple of weeks ago my brother and I went to the wedding of a friend, Sandra, whose family moved to Virginia partway through highschool. We did visit their house down there once, and her brother David came up once and we saw him then, but we really didn't keep in contact, not even through email. Anyway, we arrived in Richmond around ten something at night, near eleven, and David met up with us. We went to his house and just sat around and talked. Saturday was the wedding, so most of the day was spent on that, but in the morning we met up for brunch at a diner, and after the reception he gave us a tour of his campus. After that we just sat around (still on the campus) and talked. It was great. I mean, there was lots of stuff to catch up on, but it didn't feel weird or forced, and yeah, the friendship felt just the same as if we had never lost touch.
Then tonight my bro and I had a "family dinner". Actually, it was with two guy friends, Jon and Eric, from high school. See, one time (in high school) we all went for McDonald's after school, and my brother was asking them if they had enough money to pay, and if not, he'd give them some, etc. etc. They were like, hey, you're acting just like a dad, so from then on my brother was their "dad" and I was their "auntie", which other people thought was kind of strange since they're a year older than me. At any rate, we went out for dinner tonight, and again, even though we haven't really talked much since high school, and there was lots of catching up to do, the relationship was just as natural as before. And it was SO fun!
In the car ride back my brother and Eric (Jon met up with some friends afterwards) were exchanging horror house stories from university, and well, Eric definitely won (or lost, depending on your point of view) for having lived in the worst house! One of his stories was about how they once tried to hire a professional cleaner, as he put it: she ran away. She cleaned one floor then ran out. They were like "aren't you going to do the rest", to which she replied "It's on the house. I can't do this, I'm just one woman!" I haven't laughed so hard in a long time!! Obviously it was funnier when he said it, and the way he said it. =P But yeah, I hope we do end up getting a chance to have another dinner before we all go off to school and whatnot.
So yeah, this summer has really been great for reconnecting with people, and I think a big part of that was my trip to Grenada. It's hard to explain, but being with the team, and working with the kids for the kids' program really showed me the importance of building relationships. For me the trip wasn't about what we did, how many people we "brought to Christ", or whatnot, it was about learning how to work with the team and how to show God's love to the kids through my loving them. I've always considered myself slightly anti-social--not that I dislike people, I just have a very strong need for alone time--so it was pretty eye-opening to realize just how important solid human contact can be.
