photo friday – friends edition
I’ve been thinking about friends a lot lately – most recently because I just rediscovered my best friend from childhood online, after stumbling across her photos on display in Mac Hall. (as an aside, she writes an absolutely fantastic blog, and is a really good photographer)
I think about my childhood, growing up with friends in Canyon Meadows, a lot. I didn’t realize how much I think about it, and talk about it, until I told my son that I’d found my friend online again. He asked me if it was the friend with the boomerang. Dang. Yes. She had a boomerang, and I stupidly threw it and nearly took her head off when it came back (thankfully/unfortunately landing in a pond instead). I’d been telling him the stories of my childhood because they have shaped who I am.
And I realize that in spite of this, I have been (and continue to be) a terrible friend. I’m distant. I’m difficult to connect with. I isolate myself, and push people away. I think about my friends all the time, but don’t act.
I’ve done this all my life – and it’s something I want to change. I’m distant from everyone except my immediate family. I’m loosely bound to everyone else. I interact with my friends (and extended family) primarily online. I know I won’t be able to change completely, nor immediately, but I need to make an effort.
also, it’s no coincidence that when I picture the happiest times of hanging out with friends in recent years, it’s been at casa del lamb/mcphee with a group of really incredible people.
Ah, D’Arcy. Thanks for this–really lovely–post. It has been so good to reconnect with you. And I must tell you, that your sudden re-appearance in my online world has really inspired me. I had been fighting a certain amount of hesitancy of late regarding my online activities, and having you pop in, with your supportive words and your own very impressive online activities, has really galvanized me and moved me to get out there and connect a little bit more–and to not let fear or self-doubt stop me.
Thank you!
Oh, and that boomerang thing … did you almost take my head off with a boomerang? I think that does sound vaguely familiar … I remember kites: the Eagle and the Eye-Spy. I went through dozens of those ….
yeah – we were in Babbling Brook park (maybe walking back from Robert Warren?) – and you had a boomerang that I think you said was a gift from someone who’d been to Australia. I decide to see if it could fly. It did. You ran. It nearly hit you, then splashed into the pond. I think we recovered it, but I forget if it was damaged…
I remember the kites – dogfighting. I have to try that with Evan!
It’s strange – I remember so many things from back then in such detail (for some reason I remember the phone in your basement, with the dial on the bottom of the base. and the fort we built beside my house, with the trap door in the roof, and secret compartment for our “valuables” in the floor – silly stuff like that)
as you can see, I totally ripped off your Pixel Fix Friday idea
HaHa! I DO remember the boomerang. I knew the pond you were referring to had to be Babbling Brook. And the fort. Oh yeah, I remember the fort for sure. Ahh…those were the days. I have such amazing memories from my childhood.
And yeah, that crazy phone … I kept accidentally hanging up on people because of its weird design.
And feel free to rip off at whim. I am nothing other than flattered by it.
You are not a “terrible friend” – just human. It’s good to feel grateful for our friends, and want to be better friends for them. There’s nothing wrong with that.
We love you too. We miss you when you’re not around, and are glad when we get to see you and hear from you.
vain.
kidding. I can’t fracking wait for NV next month.