Another ‘Spontaneous Writing Booth’ poem:
Friends
When we are young
we come together so easily.
Of course, we are all growing
into our own bodies,
learning about life
from the Big Wide World
around us.
We share freely,
we speak more honestly.
Our hearts are more open.
And we are all thrown together in school –
a big pot of tiny humans, learning and growing.
We play together.
We grow up together.
We change and move apart.
We move on –
colleges, adventures, exploring, and meeting new people –
we are “young adults”, still not recognizing
the treasure of friendship.
Over the years, as our bodies reach full size
and we come into a life full of responsibility
and hard choices,
challenges and hard truths,
it slowly begins to dawn on us,
the power of those friendships.
The ones we have been lucky, and wise, enough
to hold onto
are especially dear – there is so much history.
We can connect like the innocent youths we were
back then.
We know each others back stories –
there is context.
At the same time,
we are learning a new process,
of coming together as adults.
How and where do we find “our people”,
the people we just feel natural, relaxed, comfortable,
and really Our Self with?
The people who, as my friend, Katie (she is one of those people) says,
“can show up at your house any time, day or night,
to visit, to share, it doesn’t matter what the house looks like,
doesn’t matter what you look like.”
They are always welcome,
and you are always accepted.
Those new friends are out there.
Do what you love, be who you are,
and you will find them.