Yesterday Eli was asking me if I thought he knew his friend Connor better or if Connor's new friends knew him better. I knew what was going on in his little heart. He doesn't have a best friend here, and he misses his old friends.
I sadly had to tell him the truth. "I think Connor's new friends know him better now".
He didn't like my answer.
I explained that Eli doesn't know the ins and outs of Connor's days and his buddies that he hangs out with regularly probably do. Although he didn't like it, Eli agreed with me.
Eli then declared that when he grows up and gets married and has kids he is going to stay in one place for the rest of his life - so he never has to leave his friends.
I know people who have stayed in one place their whole life, they seem so happy to be surrounded by people that they have known forever, and I can see why Eli would desire this for himself and his kids.
So I asked Eli a very important question. "Where would you have liked your one place to be?"
Very quickly he answered "Germany". While I wanted to jump up and down and say "yah that's my boy!" I refrained. Instead, I followed up with one of the truths that I have lived my life by....
So, if you only lived in Germany you would have never met Mary, Adam, Carter, Tyler, Maddie, Loralai, Jonah, Grace, or any of your other friends from Virginia. Would you be OK with that?
Then suddenly he realized where I was going with this.
I have met at least one awesome friend from each place I have ever lived. Friends that are not just email or facebook friends but friends that I have travelled across the country or around the world to visit again and again. Friends who have travelled to see me. Friends who changed me in one way or another, and therefore will always be in my heart if not in my life. As much as I love any one of those friends, I would not have wanted to give up all the rest in order to have stayed in that one place.
I met my friend Sara in July 1999 at a barbeque on the North Shore of Hawaii. I was sitting in her living room when two blackhawks had a mid-air collision at a training area not too far away. She helped edit my college papers. She attended my graduation at UHWO and she is the only person that I cried for when I left Hawaii. Two years later, in Clarksville, TN she was the first person who I left Eli with as a baby. She was the first person I called when 431 was shot down in Tikrit, she was the person who took me to the emergency room when I got so sick with the flu that I couldn't function. She was the person that I met with every single Tuesday for breakfast for nearly a year when our husbands were deployed. The last time I saw Sara was August 2006 when the boys and I drove out from Virginia to Tennessee. A few thousand days have passed since we saw each other last, but yesterday we met for breakfast here in town and those thousands of days may as well have only been a few thousand seconds. She was, is, and will always be a very special person in my life.
I have friends from all different walks of life, different geographic areas of this country, different ages, at different stages in their lives and who influenced me and my life in different ways. I tried to show Eli that a new friend will come along eventually and that friend will be so special that he will be glad that we moved here to Washington, glad that he had the chance to meet this friend and be horribly sad when and if he has to leave him.
I don't think he is really convinced. But the whole discussion was a great reminder for myself.
If it were not only 9am, I would raise a glass and say "cheers" to all my friends all over the world who have changed me, loved me, and helped me become a better person! I love you all and as much as it hurt, I am glad that I had to leave each of you in order to be blessed by meeting the next.
I sadly had to tell him the truth. "I think Connor's new friends know him better now".
He didn't like my answer.
I explained that Eli doesn't know the ins and outs of Connor's days and his buddies that he hangs out with regularly probably do. Although he didn't like it, Eli agreed with me.
Eli then declared that when he grows up and gets married and has kids he is going to stay in one place for the rest of his life - so he never has to leave his friends.
I know people who have stayed in one place their whole life, they seem so happy to be surrounded by people that they have known forever, and I can see why Eli would desire this for himself and his kids.
So I asked Eli a very important question. "Where would you have liked your one place to be?"
Very quickly he answered "Germany". While I wanted to jump up and down and say "yah that's my boy!" I refrained. Instead, I followed up with one of the truths that I have lived my life by....
So, if you only lived in Germany you would have never met Mary, Adam, Carter, Tyler, Maddie, Loralai, Jonah, Grace, or any of your other friends from Virginia. Would you be OK with that?
Then suddenly he realized where I was going with this.
I have met at least one awesome friend from each place I have ever lived. Friends that are not just email or facebook friends but friends that I have travelled across the country or around the world to visit again and again. Friends who have travelled to see me. Friends who changed me in one way or another, and therefore will always be in my heart if not in my life. As much as I love any one of those friends, I would not have wanted to give up all the rest in order to have stayed in that one place.
I met my friend Sara in July 1999 at a barbeque on the North Shore of Hawaii. I was sitting in her living room when two blackhawks had a mid-air collision at a training area not too far away. She helped edit my college papers. She attended my graduation at UHWO and she is the only person that I cried for when I left Hawaii. Two years later, in Clarksville, TN she was the first person who I left Eli with as a baby. She was the first person I called when 431 was shot down in Tikrit, she was the person who took me to the emergency room when I got so sick with the flu that I couldn't function. She was the person that I met with every single Tuesday for breakfast for nearly a year when our husbands were deployed. The last time I saw Sara was August 2006 when the boys and I drove out from Virginia to Tennessee. A few thousand days have passed since we saw each other last, but yesterday we met for breakfast here in town and those thousands of days may as well have only been a few thousand seconds. She was, is, and will always be a very special person in my life.
I have friends from all different walks of life, different geographic areas of this country, different ages, at different stages in their lives and who influenced me and my life in different ways. I tried to show Eli that a new friend will come along eventually and that friend will be so special that he will be glad that we moved here to Washington, glad that he had the chance to meet this friend and be horribly sad when and if he has to leave him.
I don't think he is really convinced. But the whole discussion was a great reminder for myself.
If it were not only 9am, I would raise a glass and say "cheers" to all my friends all over the world who have changed me, loved me, and helped me become a better person! I love you all and as much as it hurt, I am glad that I had to leave each of you in order to be blessed by meeting the next.
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