As I lay here in the early morning hours just before dawn, I allow myself to bask in the crispness of the cool air wafting in the window.  “Crisp” is a perfect description of the cool northern morning air I am experiencing.  I lay here remembering many years back when Al and I once lived in this tiny little town just 15 miles outside of Duluth, Mn.  We only lived here about 2 1/2 years before we had to move again due to another promotion my husband received.  After a short stint in this northern Minnesota town we were once again following our destiny to Sioux Falls, S.D.  While I was happy for Al about this advancement in his career, I was really sad to be moving yet again.  I have always prayed for roots, but God has seen fit to give me wings instead. We have moved SO many times!

In the short time we lived here, I became close friends with a woman around my age.  Just like the chemistry that tells you that you have found your true love when you first meet a man who is destined to be your husband, so too is the chemistry between two women who are destined to become good friends.  All these years later, we still call ourselves “sisters”.  “Chosen” sisters, which makes it all the sweeter.

What is the secret to an enduring friendship anyway?  Does one have to be the same in everything?  We are not. Do you have to have all the same  interests, tastes, and lifestyles?  Ours are not.  We are SO different, and yet we have enough common views on life that this is the glue that binds us together.

I have always told her that she is who I aspire to be, but I never quite get there.  I have always thought of her as a “lady” in all her actions.  Her gestures are small and delicate, and mine are expansive and dramatic. Her walk is a light graceful stride, while mine is the forging ahead style.   Her laugh is generally a twinkle while I will usually throw back my head and let out a guffaw when something strikes my funny bone.  She is dark haired and I am blonde.  So where does the connection begin?  While our external image is very different from one another, it is in our psychology and view of the world where we are the same.   There is hardly anything I have ever shared with her that she didn’t “get”.  She understands my psych’.  She understands my joy, my pain, my disappointments and my humor!  And, I understand hers as well!.  Often we share the exact same thoughts and feelings! This wonderful connection happened in just 2 1/2 years and it stuck!

So now here I am, over 30 years later, reclining on a soft bed in her guest bedroom during a short visit to the north country with my husband.  Say what you will about the long, cold, gray, and snowy winters of the north…it seems, as a reward for getting through the winter months, God brings around the most lovely of springs and the most beautiful of summers.  The flowers show themselves in gorgeous, colorful, and bountiful displays.  The trees are a rich, deep green and I must admit, my heart flutters a bit when my eyes take in the Blue  Spruce and Norway Pines, because they were such a prominent part of my childhood and we just don’t see them in the south.  The grass is thick and green and plush like a carpet. The skies are bright blue, the clouds a billowy white, and the birds are flying around busily building their nests and feeding their babies.  It is surely a foretaste of heaven to come!

Now that I have counted my blessings of the human, animal and plant variety, I should get up and go downstairs to share a cup of java with our host and hostess.  This  cool air I am enjoying is a such a lovely gift.  Maybe this gift is especially for this transplanted northern girl who now resides in the Hot Texas climate most summers. This lovely gift of cool air through an open window in the north country is very welcomed.  My dreams have been so much more vivid here as a result of this cooling, or am I only imagining them to be this way?

We are soon going down the road to visit other good friends and loving family.  Our connections in life to people past and present makes me think of my Granddaughters table grace song…

Amen! Amen!

Amen! Amen! Amen! Ahhhhhhhhmen!  Praise the Lord!