Sunday Night Dinner

A very dear friend of mine moved to Maine a few years back with her husband.  Thankfully I see her here and there still - usually at friend's weddings or baby showers or any other sort of celebratory occasion that brings this particular gang of friends together for an afternoon, an evening.  It is rare these days that I get much one on one time with her though, given the nature (wonderful in and of themselves of course) of these gatherings and the literal distance between our daily lives and routines.  As these things go, of course, their move could have been worse, could have been further.  Still, what used to be a quick 20 minute subway ride between our apartments became a 3 hour drive north.  Our spontaneous date nights spent together at favorite restaurants in the city, or catching a show at the theater, or grabbing a glass of wine at the end of a long day at the office gave way to planned road trips and weekend visits carved out months in advance.

So when she texted me last Thursday night, spontaneously suggesting we could meet for dinner in Portland Sunday evening as a sort of "in-between" for our two dwelling locations, I was immediately intrigued by the proposition.  She prefaced the whole idea with a multitude of disclaimers.  She knew it was a haul, she knew it was last minute, but still...it was a thought.  A lovely thought.  Of course, when I first read her text, I thought of a million reasons why I shouldn't go.  There was the long drive, the late Sunday night which meant I was sure to start my week tired, 800 different "to-do" projects I could tackle at home instead, and the list goes on.  We can always talk ourselves out of anything if we want to.  Which means we can just as easily talk ourselves into something.

I love my friend.  I miss my friend.  Our lives seem only to be getting busier, the days, the years move faster than I can honestly comprehend.  As I hit reply to her message, I knew that at the end of the day, at the end of what I hope is a long, healthy, life, I can guarantee I will not be lamenting the fact that I went to work a touch tired on a Monday morning or that I clocked a couple of hundred miles on my Jeep on a bit of a whim.  But I will be forever glad I seized a rare opportunity for a few precious, uninterrupted hours of catch-up, discussion, laughter, and shared smiles over a delicious, cozy meal with one of my closest friends, a kindred spirit.

Sometimes, in this life, I think the point is really just to go.  To always keep going. How lovely, how blessed then, are the times when we know there's a friend waiting for us at our destination.