life scripts written in pencil

sunrise from my vantage point, April 9, 2008

I love a good mystery and there aren't any better stories than the surprise twists and turns found in our own lives. Mysteries always have subplots that can leave you wondering about the purpose, or the reason behind it. Sometimes it becomes clear as it weaves back into the original plot, and sometimes you are left dangling in the thin air of the unknown. Not everything has a concrete, hold in your hands, reason.........even when it comes to wondering why someone has entered into your life in a profound manner. Our stories are life scripts which need to be written in pencil in order for the opportunity to make revisions is always an option. Because, well.....you just never know when an impacting event, person, thing will alter the trajectory. Gotta be ready for the possibility of life changes. Gotta be ready for an adventure.

Have you ever wondered why you have met someone...........sometimes they arrive in the nick of time, to point something out to you, or to teach you a life lesson which until then you seem to have missed. Sometimes they become friends.........good friends who become accomplices in helping you figure out part of the mystery. They become key players in your life script and you in theirs.....additions to a story that could easily become staid and stale from a "written in stone" mentality if it were not for the freshness found in being open to new perspectives, new ideas. More often than not, the changes to the script have to do with the people who enter our lives.......the joys and sorrows we share, along with the highs and lows all can precipitate the possibility of changing our storyline.

What I love about this idea is that we just never know when one of these plot twisters will show up. Everyone we meet has the capacity to affect your life, but in reality however, there are only a select few who are meant to be a part of your destiny. This is where the dividing line is between friends and kindred spirits.

In the summer of 1978, when I was 17 years old going on 18, I met a new friend at a summer camp we were working at. Laura was the only new person to be hired to join a staff of people who had been weaned as campers and staff at Camp Kawabi. How daunting was that? In she blew like a fresh breeze which stirred the group who had been comfortably and perhaps too staidly settled and from the moment she arrived, I knew my life had changed. I knew I had found a kindred spirit. Our friendship seemed to soar upwards to a place rich in openness and understanding, where very few friendships ever reach. Looking at how quickly we bonded back then, it seemed like it was an instanteous happening. We were inseparable...... two chatty, ever laughing, always plotting adolescent girls. We had a BLAST that summer. .... and the next summer.......

Our natural friendship continued to evolve outside of our idyllic summers at camp despite our "lives" at home. Though we didn't live in the same city, we arranged weekends at each other's homes as often as we could. It seemed like our friendship would continue to grow and evolve as part of our lifelong life scripts. But, somehow, somewhere along the line, as Camp ceased to be our summer connector, and as we focused on our studies, lived in different cities, we somehow lost touch. In fact the last time I saw Laura was on her wedding day. By then, I had moved onto Toronto to begin my graduate studies. Our worlds were different.....she establishing herself as a teacher, and me still working away in my studies.

Of all the friends who have come and gone...........whom I have walked a mile or two with, never in a million years would I have thought that I would lose touch with Laura. And yet, it happened. I havent seen her in almost 25 years. I hadn't heard from her either.........we were lost to one another, until this week. On Monday, I received an email from my long lost friend. I couldn't be happier. What has surprised me was my reaction.......oh, there were tears of joy when I realized what had just happened, and a little shock that so much time had slipped by. But, the overall feeling I am experiencing is one that floats in a sense of calm. I had always felt that our life scripts would intertwine again. I don't know why I felt that, but it was one of those things that just seemed destined.



"I was lost, but now am found......." these were the words Laura wrote on the camp website tonight to let others know too. I just may see her in June at a planned reunion if she can swing it. In only a couple of months, Muskie and Wasabun may be sitting down on the beach under the stars swigging some wine and laughing again like two adolescent girls.

Amazing grace indeed. Life's mysteries are marvellous.