Because I Have Loved Them…(6 of 90)

Twelve years.

I try not to think of time anymore because it seems to be stretching out further and further, pulling me away from the moments when the important events in my life happened. I can’t escape the reality, though, that it’s been twelve years since I met the women I’m flying to San Francisco to see.

Some of my favorite people: Jessie, Erica and Anne. Three strong-willed women who are more than happy to take up an argument with me and frankly, three women I fear when they gather. Still I’ve grown to love them all. And cherish the small bits of time we get to spend with each other.

It seems both forever ago and just yesterday that we met. I can’t rightly tell you which of these is true. Or if it’s possible for both to be true.  Whatever the case, the man who met them isn’t around anymore.

I will happily speak for everyone when I tell you how happy we all are about that (although Rob and Jessie’s wedding was certainly a site to behold. Particularly when Anne and I ended up on the dance floor, much to everyone’s amusement).

***

Time passes quickly. Slips right by you even when you’re paying attention. Before you know it, new people start showing up to the party.

I stay with Jessie and Rob when I visit San Francisco, and they were kind enough to bring me new playmates for my visits.

Anne and Marcus did the same.

Somehow Erica managed to introduce me to her children when I didn’t have a camera around. I will surely fix that little problem when I arrive in San Francisco.

And there are more children now. Seven of the Wee Beasties between the three families. Wee Beasties who will not remember or recognize me from my last visit. That’s the least favorite part of my life, the part where these kids who I carry around in my heart just change and grow and morph without me.

Not in the “me” sense. In the sense that they are living their tiny lives and I don’t get to be part of it. Not much anyway. Every year if I’m lucky. Every two is more like it.

And when I come back, they magically look like this:

Gorgeous little monkeys. All of them. But so big. So different every time I see them. And I just want to get to know everything about them.

I want to know everything about them because I love the young women I met twelve years ago (Jessie and Anne, once again Erica found a way to avoid the camera) and they are my friends. The ones that you chose in your life. The ones that you make time for despite the thousands of miles of separation, the long intervals between visits and the countless hurdles that can derail even the most important friendships.

I suspect that as time speeds up and we barrel towards the inevitable, I will spend more time thinking of these families, of these beautiful people, of the times we have spent together and the laughs we have shared.

I will regret not having more time with them in the way that we regret things we cannot change. And I will be happy that I get to regret these things.

Because that means I have loved them.