Earth Day Prorogued

I was planning to talk about Earth Day, and maybe my patron Saint, but instead I’m going to do something completely different. Ha!

I ran into someone I went to high school with today, whom I think I’ve seen once before in the last decade. Wow! I have to say that this was really unexpected. You never know what surprises await you should you take a stroll along the sidewalk!

Like me, this woman went back to school after completing a degree (today was actually her last exam ever). I felt somehow comforted to know I’m not the only person in my graduating class who’s still somewhat rootless, who stayed in school for what some have called a ridiculous amount of time.

Lately I’ve been feeling pretty…I don’t know if ‘lost’ is the word, but I’m gonna use it. My best friends are getting married and having babies, have jobs and mortgages and pets. I sometimes feel that I somehow managed to sacrifice my life (as in, ‘get a life’) in order to get a university degree(s). Is it really that important to me, that I was willing to miss out on so much in order to get it?

Meeting this woman today, just shy of campus, helped me remember that it’s okay for this to be important to me, because we all have to follow our own path, even if it’s a winding dirt road through death valley, leading to what may or may not be the last rest stop for two hundred miles.

More important than this feeling of self-validation, my chance encounter reminded me of how lucky I am to have my best friends. It really is special and miraculous that we’ve stayed together all these years after high school ended, some of us having met even well before then. I love my friends, and I can honestly say they saved my life. For example, Melissa – the first friend I made in high school – had come to my house one day and I mentioned where I was going that night. When I went missing, she actually woke up her boyfriend, remembered the name, looked up the person’s number and called his house at Lord only knows what unholy time in the morning. She was the first person I spoke to after getting away.

My friends visited me in the hospital, and were there afterward. They’ve always supported me in going to school, they’ve believed in my dreams and supported my faith. They’ve encouraged and trusted me. Even when I’ve pushed them away because I was afraid of hurting them, they’ve never turned their backs on me. I wish everyone were as lucky as I am. I hope we get to share in each other’s lives forever.

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all you have done for us. We thank you for the splendour of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love. We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side. We thank you for setting us tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us. We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone. Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, by which he overcame death; for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom. Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen (BAS).

Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to thy never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (BCP).