Silver and gold

“Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold.” Author Unknown

I love that quote and the sentiment behind it. I wonder who the author thought was gold and who he/she thought was silver. In my life, I have found that it really varies. It seems friendships carry so many labels beyond the old and new friends referenced in this quote. Here are some of mine: High school friends, college friends, Navy friends, local friends, work friends, church friends, Mommy friends, blog friends, adoption friends, etc...

The past few weeks I have been on a mission to find and catch up with some of my old (NOT age-ha) friends. It all stemmed from an exciting Friday night at the Osborn residence where I went into the depths of a cabinet filled with old directories and address books and started purging. If you know me very well, you know I couldn't complete the task without taking some excursions down memory lane. As I paged through the address books, I waxed nostalgic and wondered how and why people lose touch. Where are these people today? I even had to dig deep to remember who some of them were and contemplate why they were in my address book. As I looked at pictures in directories, I noticed how I had "forgotten" people I had once known and felt close to. I feel like I have tried to keep in touch with people to preserve relationships but realize it takes much more effort from both sides to keep a friendship strong and long-lasting.

As a result of my purging project I found my two missing bridesmaids (I only had four and one of them is my sister-in-law) and had the chance to talk to them several days ago. I am hopeful to not lose track now. Gotta love the internet!!! Ironically, one of them only lives about four hours away. I also talked to the high school friend pictured with me in the photo above. It had been a year but it really only felt like a week.

Not only have I been on a mission to resurrect some older relationships, I have also been trying to strengthen some newer relationships. This quest poses some challenges because some of them are friends whom I have never met or spoken to and many live far away. However strange that may sound, they are a source of tremendous support and special closeness. I am thankful for these newer friends and hope through the power of technology and a bit of self-discipline to maintain healthy relationships with them.

Life gives us lots of balls to juggle and sometimes it can be challenging to successfully keep them all up in the air. I am hopeful I can get better at my juggling routine by keeping up with my old friends, getting to know my newer friends better, and all the while hold onto the other friends God has blessed me with.