Today my friend was kind enough to come for tea. We had originally discussed lunch or coffee, but in the end I just wanted to stay home. She is not my oldest friend (in years or in time spent as friends), but she is a friend who has seen me at my lowest point and loved me anyway. She has also watched me cry my eyes out and refrained from offering advice until I asked for it. Such friends are precious.

We live an hour apart, but we just don’t get together often anymore, the demands of jobs and kids and all the trappings of life seem to get in the way, and then we spend time together and I wonder why it was so long since we last spoke.

I took a look around as she came in and saw what was out of place–a craft project on the table, boxes of ornaments and decorations not yet taken to the shed, GI Joe and Barbie having a party all over the living room floor. And I remembered that she was coming to see me, not check up on my housekeeping skills. We talked about the morning spent in the garden, the kids, and who knows what else. She remembered that I forgot to put the milk out for tea and helped herself as needed.

She caught me up on her job which she obviously loves. She is a speech pathologist, too, and we used to work together, but that was a few years back.

We had a busy morning here before my friend arrived because it was our first day of the new year to make a conscious effort at learning something. Nevermind all the learning we did about redwood trees, dormant volcanoes, tides, and quilting. That was vacation learning :).

What did I learn today? Maybe it wasn’t a new lesson, so it might be better to say that I remembered that there are a lot of things that can wait while I sit and have a cup of tea with a friend. I think we are both the better for it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm and is filed under children, family fun, homeschool. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.