Lunch WITH Amy!

I am always grateful for a lunch out with a friend. They don't happen often, because frankly, it's easier to just stay home and make the required peanutbutter sandwiches than to cover my bases and go. But, oh, a chance to eat and talk slowly! A chance to select something from a more sophisticated menu that your family wouldn't want!

I was especially grateful for a lunch with cousin Amy, yesterday! She was in town and we made meeting up a priority. I've had our day written on the calendar and been looking forward to it for a while. Just us! No kids. No husbands. No hurried agenda. Just lunch (and Nielsen's icecream as mandatory dessert!). Just catching up as we've done before. Just talking through challenges and daily details in a way no long distance chain of emails can do.


But, really, no simple "just" fits the fact that she was able to come and sit across the table from me. The fact that she made it out of the ICU states away, and is again holding her own a couple of months later is miraculous. (Doesn't she look amazing in yesterday's picture, above?)

If someone had peeked at us from another lunchtable, they would have seen us laughing together and also furrowing our brows with no good explanations. If someone had eavesdropped, they would have heard our personal updates and also our list of what was perhaps to be learned in the recent bit. But, that same outside someone wouldn't know the whole backstory of our past months from just looking at us. They wouldn't know our struggles nor our wins.

And, you know, I think that's just how life is: A room full of round lunch tables with people meeting up if/when they can then returning to their individual reality after the tab is paid. One patron looking at the next doesn't know another's full story. No one knows what the other was facing last week. Everyone has their own challenges and triumphs.

I left lunch both grateful for the chance to catch up, and aware of the importance of not judging others in another chair. And, when I came home, I found myself (as Matt said) looking HAPPY! That's what talking and listening to a dear friend will do - send you home happy!

Because of Amy's scare (she recorded full details on her blog, and some of you heard bits and pieces from my emotional self along the way), I find myself even more grateful that she's here to figure this life out alongside me. I find myself more appreciative of genuine friendships. I find myself more thankful each time my path crosses with anyone who gives me better perspective. I find myself more appreciative of my physical ability to deal with the motions rather than just going through them.