Quote of the Week #31

I had the pleasure of meeting with an old friend from college over the weekend–someone whom I hadn’t seen or talked to in many years. After graduation, he went his way, and I went mine, both of us starting new lives in new places. Despite our time apart, the conversation was natural and easy, both of us filling in the gaps for each other about our lives and adventures as if we’d been separated days rather than decades.

It made me think of a quote I came across a long time ago and carefully copied into volume #2 of 3 blank books I have filled over the years with meaningful quotations. This morning I went looking for it, happy when I located it, smiling when I reread it, thinking how accurately it says what I was feeling.

And so, I share it with you, as my quote of the week:

(Again, in case you can’t read it on your tiny device:)

“Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain tougher, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”  –Rex Cole

And then, before I sign off, I will offer another one, also something I copied down many years ago, this in Volume #3. Much sadder, this quote shows how important it is to keep in touch with friends, to make time for them now, even though our lives are busy.

This is a poem called Around the Corner by Henson Towne. He says,

Around the corner I have a friend, in this great city that has no end, Yet days go by and weeks rush on, and before I know it, a year is gone. And I never see my old friend’s face, for life is a swift and terrible race.  He knows I like him just as well as in the days when I rang his bell. And he rang mine.  We were younger then–and now we are busy, tired men, tired with playing a foolish game, tired with trying to make a name. “Tomorrow” I say, “I will call on Jim, just to show I’m thinking of him.” But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes; and the distance between us grows and grows. Around the corner! Yet miles away…     “Here’s a telegram, sir, Jim died today.” And that’s what we get and deserve in the end–  Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Do you have friends you haven’t seen or talked to in years? Perhaps today is the day to reach out and get in touch!