I deleted my previous blogs although I believe two are still housed on my facebook page. I am a firm believer of journaling to take away sadness, grief, pain, so I'm going to try it for lonliness. It seems like too much effort to actually use a pencil and my clothbound journal anymore.
Here I am, living in beautiful Bay Village, across the street from Lake Erie, and I'm lonely for all my friends in past parts of my life. If something would happen to Bob, I don't think I can live here by myself. There is not one friend here that I can walk, talk, or visit with here in Bay. All my connections are in Elyria, Ohio. That's where I grew up, went to school, started and ended my career, raised my children, and made our home. Heck, we even have cemetery plots in the cemetery on Cleveland Street where the Elyria High School Marching Band will come to play every Memorial Day! As a former member of the Elyria High School Pioneer Marching band, and the 1969 EHS Band Marcher of the Year, I am actually thrilled about that!
Perhaps we are past the age when you make good, new friends in life? If you think about the folks you consider your friends, when did you begin that friendship? We have friends from our early school day, church, jobs, former neighbors. Many of our friends are former colleagues of ours. Some we met while working with them before we had children. Some we became friends with as we struggled with parenthood and the "how to" parts of our lives. Then there are others who entered our lives as our children became friends with their children. In our case, it was marching band, choir, and 4H. Ah, yes! Nothing bonds you quicker than spending a week camping out at the fair in a huge muddy field on either hot or freezing nights by the bonfire, trying to cook an entire meal in the rain as our children danced happily in the mud around the campfire! Those were happy days, even though we didn't realize it yet!
I miss those parts of our life. I miss having those connections with people who knew me in a different time and place. Perhaps that's why facebook means so much to many of us? Once we've made the initial connection with our old friends, there comes a sense of peace. We no longer wonder what ever became of them. We now have them as our "friends" and can keep track of their lives, like we once used to do. In another time and place of our lives.
