Miles and Years

What a difference a year makes. Sitting here on the computer while Silas cycles through a round of naps (trashing any opportunity to get out in the sun and walk), I was reflecting on how much my body has changed this year. While sorting though old pictures to illustrate how gigantic I have become, however, I ran across some from a trip I took last year. I was inspired to celebrate a friendship rather than post the moans of a mammoth mama.

Here are two pics, one from last year when I visited my friend Jessie and her two month old son, Evan, in Clarksville, Tennessee (the other baby is the daughter of my ex-boyfriend, who now lives in Nashville), and one from a year later with our sons. Our sons. How wacky to write those words!

I've known Jessie since I was three and she was two. Her mother and my parents were city-fleeing-hippie-esque transplants to Barre, Massachusetts in the late seventies. We grew up in the same circle of parents-who-were-friends-so-their-kids-better-be-too, but we weren't very close (I think Jess got picked on by me a lot, I hate to say.) But then,in our tween years, we began to get closer. We both had a love of reading and swapped dozens of books. We also loved to pretend, and made elaborate video versions of Anne of Green gables and R.E.M. songs with the family camcorder. We both loved to sing, together in choir and apart in our school choruses. We went to different schools, but hung out together throughout high school. We wrote letters to each other across town, and then, when I went off to Ohio, across the country. For many years, I was the one always moving - Ohio, other parts of Massachusetts, Mississippi, England, Massachusetts again. We wrote letters and got together when we were close enough to.Then, suddenly Jess was gone, off to follow her boyfriend stationed in Tennessee. We lost touch for over a year. No more letters, no more song-filled drives and long discussions of books and boys and how growing up takes a long, long time. In that gap, Jess was suddenly married with a baby on the way and a husband off at war, and I missed her! So I went to find my best friend again and help out with her precious boy.

Last month, we overlapped on a visit back to Massachusetts and got the little guys together for a brief afternoon. It was so surreal, transplanted in our hometown with our sons. I wondered how it would have been if we had both stayed there instead of flying off to separate corners of the country. But, I realized, then we wouldn't have the shoeboxes and scrapbooks of notes and letters...no experiences to chronicle and share. We'd probably be bored with each other by now.

Jessie just sent Silas some pictures from our visit East, along with a cute note to him. He has a collection of cards from her already, and a whole lot of hand-me-downs. I have a ready ear and a willing hand to turn to, even cross-country. Jess is the epitome of thoughtful (and organized, and creative, and a brilliant mom.) I am so lucky to have her in my life, especially this part of my life. She's seen me grow and change and move and return through more miles and years than anyone (family excluded.) I treasure her wisdom and adbvice, and I know that she values mine. I have many friends (like you and you, and you...), but she's still the best.