Catch and Release

Way, way, way back when we were in Avalon, a month ago, we went fishing. We caught a seahorse. Not much of a dinner, so we threw 'im back. Personally, I didn't know 'til then that you could catch a sea horse with a fishing pole, and I didn't know that sea horses were lurking in the Atlantic waters of NJ. However, this is not a post on marine biology or physics.

It is a post on friendship.

Remember that book I told you was required reading? Same Kind of Different As Me? You ran out and got it and read it in one night, right? You don't have to answer.

Do you remember the part of the book where Ron Hall (the art dealer) proded on by his dear wife, Deborah (the heroine) tells Denver Moore (the homeless dude) he'd like to be his friend? Do you remember Denver's answer? I know, who could forget, right?!!! Well, for those of you rebels who didn't heed my command to go out and get the book, I'll share it with you. Well, my synopsis anyway. (Yeah, you may want to just read the book)

Denver doesn't answer Ron right away (like it wouldn't be hard enough for one guy to ask another guy to be his friend!) But when he does, he starts by asking Ron about how white people fish. He can't understand how a white person can catch a fish for fun only to throw it back in the water. According to him, a black person is only going to catch a fish if he plans on eating it. He then told Ron that he didn't want to be his friend if it was only for fun and that sooner or later he was going to be thrown back. But if Ron really wanted to be his friend, then Denver said he would be his friend. Forever.

I love that. In a world full of "Facebook friends", and the busyness of our day to day lives, it is so important to remember how necessary real friends are. When I think back on all the friends that God has put in my life, it makes me sad to think that there are some that I threw back, and on some occasions, have been the one thrown. I also appreciate that God has put certain people in our lives for only a short time for a specific purpose and sometimes that is hard. But sometimes, God gives us the gift of reconnecting with a friend. What a treasure.

I was in the grocery store a while back and ran into a friend that I hadn't seen or spoken with in over 10 years. 10 years! And I love this friend dearly. We were coworkers and traveling buddies. We traveled to London 3 times together just for "weekend getaways" (yeah, I had money to do that at one point in my life) I rode my first horse ever on the beautiful rocks of Sedona with her by my side (well, okay, she was there, but being a seasoned horse rider, was way ahead of me on the trail. My horse and I were takin' it slow, in case of rattle snakes...) we explored Northern California together, she came to my wedding. We were tight. And then I switched careers, she moved, I moved, we lived far from each other and we lost touch.

She now lives 5 minutes from my house. Is married and hangs out at a horse farm down the road. Can you imagine the scene the two of us made in the store when we saw each other and then learned that we are practically NEIGHBORS!!! And she has been there for almost 7 years!! I'm sure it was worthy of America's Funniest Home Videos. The screams, the laughter, the tears...

I don't want to take my friendships lightly. And I hope my friends know that, not just through my words, but through my actions. I'm not throwing anyone back.