There is an old saying and it goes something like this, friends come for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. With the coming of a new school year, brings new beginnings, new clothes, new shoes, new hairstyle, brand new backpack, new lunchbox, new friends, and a new teacher. It also brings new challenges, new uncertainties, sometimes a new town, new surroundings, new location, new dialects, new foods, new home, a new family. Sometimes new isn’t always necessarily better. Sometimes we liked the old house, the old friends, the old teacher, the old school, the old shoes, the old lunchbox, the old job, the old surroundings, the old family. Change is inevitable, circumstance bearable, outlook changeable. Have you ever watched a flame flicker? What colors did you see? The usual interpretation at least in my mind is that the color is red. But if you look closely and watch the flames dance with a combination of oxygen and light, you will see that the color is not red, it is many colors, blue, orange, yellow, and yes, sometimes red. That’s life to me, we hold on to the familiar, and often forget the wonders of really exploring, paying attention to our surroundings. My mother recently told me to remember to feed, prune and water the roses while she was on an out of the country trip. My father has often reminded me to remember to stop and smell the roses. Why are both of these sentiments right and not in opposition to one another? Both of these seeds of wisdom provide very helpful insight into what really matters in life. If you want to be able to take time to relax, and recuperate and appreciate, you must remember to feed the mind, make adjustments when necessary and to nourish the soul.
Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold. A circle is round it has no end, and that’s how long I want to be your friend.
