Hello Beautiful People. “Not every goodbye is spoken. Some chapters just turn.” ~ Unknown
I’ve made some of my favorite memories with people I may never speak to again. It’s funny how one day you’re laughing and making plans that never happen; not because you had a falling out, but because that chapter in your life simply came to an end. There were no bad feelings, just life happening. You sat up laughing until four in the morning, knowing this was now one of your closest friends, but just as quickly as the friendship began, it faded into a beautiful memory of a single night filled with laughter.
As I watch my grandchildren play, I think about that quote that says something like: “one day you’ll go out to play with your friends and it will be the last time, but you won’t know it’s the last time.” I think a lot about my childhood friends, the ones I grew up riding bikes with and playing in each other’s garages. It was the ’70s and early ’80s, and I can vividly remember playing with Lisa, James, Harvey, and his two sisters almost every day. We were all great friends.
That all lasted until the summer of sixth grade. Then a new chapter started. New friends. New school. A new life, almost as if the last one didn’t happen. It became just a memory. I never saw it coming. It just did.
I remember my last phone call with one of my best friends before she passed. We didn’t know it would be the last one, or we would have talked longer, I’m sure. But that’s the thing about time, seasons, chapters, life. We never know when things will change, but they do, in the blink of an eye.
I wouldn’t trade a single memory because they all made me who I am. As I write this, I’m laughing and crying over all the people in those past chapters of my life. From dancing until we closed the club and, yes, let’s not forget broken towel racks. From basement apartments with no heat to parties that got us thrown out. To my last game of hide-and-seek on Snow Ave. I wouldn’t change a thing.
These memories may fade into the back of my mind, like waking from a dream — remembering only pieces, with a half-smile — because you laughed, you cried, you loved, you lived. And maybe that’s the point of it all: not to hold on so tightly that nothing ever changes, but to be grateful that it happened at all. Some people are meant to stay forever, and others are meant to shape us for a season. Both matter. Both leave their mark.
No matter the chapter or the season of life you are in, make sure to make those memories that will leave you with a smile on your face because you took the the time to Find The Good In Your Life.
Find The Good In Your Life 