the dawn of an older age

the path of my beginnings started with friends. and i carried those friends with me throughout my high school and college days. i said goodbye to one of those friends today. and as i walked around the room, i watched the many intersections of the paths of her life come together in the form of the people she had loved, in her work as a nurse, in her church family and in the love of her husband and children left numb by the suddeness of her death. all those paths reflected in the people who gathered to remember her..... their own intersections written on their faces, embraced in their hearts, and grown richer through her love. i was lucky enough to be one of those people in her path..... one of those many, many intersections in her remarkable life. and as i looked through the many pictures that were laid out on the tables, i found my own path affirmed once more as i found those goofy, smiling pictures of us when we were young, with ridiculous 80's hair and wide open eyes....... when we never knew that the intersection of our paths would forever be the foundation for every future relationship we would build from that point on........ affirming my path, whatever that might be, but walking it with one less friend.