Each happy bygone day

Guess what?

I like to go places but I don't particularly enjoy travel.

Figure that one out and when you do, let me know what it means.

Be that as it may, while in Georgia with Erica last week, I had an experience as unexpected as it was poignant.

I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

It involved reuniting with Sherry, a girlhood friend I hadn't seen in nearly two decades.

Rather than tell you all the ins and outs of that situation and risk boring you to bits because you don't know my friend, I'll simply share with you a few poems plus several pictures I took while I was away.

I don't know about you but my heart gets a trifle bruise-ey upon looking back, even to prod at sweet memories.

At such times poetry soothes while pictures serve to evoke the beauty that is all around us all the time if only we remember to look.

Speaking of poetry, not long after I returned home, Sherry sent me an email containing a poem with which I was familiar.

You probably are as well:

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Make new friends; keep the old.
Those are silver; these are gold.
Friendships that have stood the test
Of time and change are surely best.
Brow may wrinkle; hair may gray.
Friendship never knows decay.
For 'mid old friends, tried and true,
Once more we our youth renew.
Cherish friendship in your breast;
New is good, but old is best.
Make new friends; keep the old.
Those are silver; these are gold.

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Also when I returned home, there was a gift on my desk: a belated birthday present from my son, who had been in town for a few days while I was gone.

The gift was a book: The Best Loved Poems of the American People.

Andrew knows how much I love poetry anthologies. I spent a half hour perusing my book even before I unpacked my suitcases. While doing so I found this uncannily appropriate poem:

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All to myself I find the way
Back to each golden yesterday,
Faring in fancy until I stand
Clasping your ready, friendly hand;
The picture seems half true, half dream,
And I keep its color and its gleam
All to myself.

All to myself I hum again
Fragments of some old-time refrain,
Something that comes at fancy's choice,
And I hear the cadence of your voice:
Sometimes 'tis dim, sometimes 'tis clear,
But I keep the music that I hear
All to myself.

All to myself I hold and know
All of the days of long ago --
Wonderful days when you and I
Owned all the sunshine in the sky:
The days come back as the old days will,
And I keep their tingle and their thrill
All to myself.

All to myself! My friend, do you
Count all the memories softly, too?
Summer and Autumn, Winter, Spring,
The hopes we cherish, and everything?
They course my veins as a draft divine,
And I keep them wholly, solely mine --
All to myself.

All to myself I think of you,
Think of the things we used to do,
Think of the things we used to say,
Think of each happy, bygone day;
Sometimes I sigh and sometimes I smile,
But I keep each olden, golden while
All to myself.

by Wilbur Dick Nesbit

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That about sums it up. However, I would like to add one more thing.

Today would have been the fifty-fourth birthday of another dear old friend, a college roommate with whom I kept in touch on and off all through the years.

Her name was Susan Beth Spangler. Susan succumbed to cancer on October 5, 2011, at her parents' home in Inverness, Florida. Susan was one of those rare people who always urged me to look for the beauty. It was her lifelong practice and something at which she excelled.

Knowing her greatly enriched my life.

I miss Susan but I'll see her again for she had a clear testimony of faith in Christ. For that reason -- and none other -- I believe she's in Heaven today.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I Corinthians 15:55-57

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Happy Spring!

Comments

[irene]

This is so lovely that you've reconnected with a friend from so long ago. And so sad that you've lost Susan. I believe that she must be in heaven too. And I know of what you speak with going places and traveling. I wish my son would get on with it an invent his transporter. Your son sure knows what you like, that's a good thing. I'm afraid I still get gifts my kids would like to receive. But they are getting to be better at it. Happy Birthday belated of coarse. Sounds like your time with Erica was great.

[Sue the Hobbit]

You have some awesome focus and reflection going on in them thar photos.
And thanks. Now I'm humming "one is silver and the other's gold".....

[Mari]

What a beautiful and poignant post! I love the pictures and the poetry too. The verse you ended with is a wonderful promise!
Glad you had time with your friend. Andrew knows you well. :)

[Donna (Texas)]

So glad you enjoyed your visit with your old friend Jenny...and I'm so sorry about Susan...People that have to fight that dragon are SO brave...
(((HUG)))

[Donna (Texas)]

PS...I'm still sitting here thinking about your loss when I look to my right and see "High Flight"...on your blog background. I remember as a kid, sitting with my Dad at midnight (he worked 3-11 many nights and I'd wait up on him) and watch this on the TV when the channel would sign off for the day...
Thanks for that memory sweetie...
hughugs

[Crystal]

I so love how we can live some of ur special memories sad or happy thru ur pictures. Beautiful, wonderful. Blessings to you ;)