The Fellowship Fountain

I had a drink tonight. A BIG drink! I needed it…I mean that, I confess it…I needed a drink tonight. I drank deep from the Fellowship Fountain.

I just spent 3-1/2 WONDERFUL hours with a kindred spirit friend. Ever heard of that before? I’m blessed to have a number of them. That’s good & bad. Good in that it means ‘real’ conversations that pick up where you left off, regardless of the distance/length of time between last contact. Bad because it also means there are lapses in contact – sometimes lengthy.

Tonight I visited with a friend I haven’t seen in 8 years. And it was like we saw each other last week…only we didn’t have enough time to cover everything, so we played hop-scotch story telling. I made new friends w/ her 2 kids (4 and 6). They were crawling all over me, holding my hands, asking to be picked up, I was being trusted with their stuffed animals (I’m a GREAT caregiver of stuffed animals!), and I corrupted them. Yep…it’s on camera. I taught them the Monkey’s walk….ever try doing that with people 1/2 your size and only 1/8 of your stride?! Let’s just say their mom and I demonstrated….we didn’t do a drive-by noodling (long story from the past!) so we had to ‘make a memory’ some other way! We sat at the pool as the kids swam, we ate spaghetti, and we talked. We just talked…..caught up on what ‘life’ has thrown our way, challenged each other with contentment and lessons the Lord is teaching, shared dreams, told stories, relived others….we just enjoyed adult conversation. We shared about what the Lord has taken us through. We shared our battle scars and war stories. And together wove a tapestry that showed SOMEHOW we still made it to the other side of that mountain at that time in our life, whenever it was. It was like getting to the top of the mountain and taking a look back over your shoulder and discovering that mess you just trudged through was actually a beautiful forest. Kindred spirit friends help with perspective.

I’m blessed. This friendship has rekindled. When they come back to Ohio they have relatives a mile from me, so I’m already ‘on the hook’ (I promised) to have them over, make a fire, let the kids toast hot dogs & blow up Peeps in the fire…..and run and play and maybe even do the Monkey’s walk down our dead-end street. And take another deep drink from the fountain of fellowship.