“ When you see your old friends, you come face to face with yourself.”
~ Polly Bergen
What are your yardsticks in life? How do you recognize the changes you go through? Have you ever felt surprised upon seeing an old friend after a long absence?
Like many things in this world, there are two sides to the coin. Sometimes an old friend shows up in your life, and sometimes you get to be the one coming out of the woodwork. It’s a special kind of reflection to reacquaint yourself with someone after many years of water going under the bridge.
You might find yourself wondering how they got to where they are today. You might wonder the same about yourself. Or you may think “It sure looks like we’ve been dancing on different floors“.
It’s one thing if it’s someone that you’ve been keeping in touch with to some extent. You may have some idea of what’s going on with them or where they are in life.
It’s another thing all together if you’ve completely fallen out of touch for a long time. There’s nothing like a few decades to make a big shift in people.
They say that the sign of true friendship is when you get together with someone you haven’t seen in ages and the conversation picks up right where you left off all those years ago without missing a beat.
These past few days have been whirlwind of this. A fellow I worked closely with some 35 years ago dropped in out of the blue. After such a long time on divergent paths, I had no idea what to expect.
Our visit became a real meditation on how life treats each one of us differently. Then again, perhaps it’s not so much how life treats us — it’s how we treat life that matters most. Our choices in life are written on us like words in a book.
In your memory and in your dreams, folks are immortalized at whatever age you knew them. Yet in the real world they are busy living their lives and evolving just as you are.
The person who lives in your recollections may or may not bear much resemblance to the person who shows up on your doorstep. If you’re the one showing up, which parts of you are worth bringing along?
We are all teachers in one way or another, whether we acknowledge it or not. When you spend enough time with someone, or share transformative experiences in some sort of a group or cohort, you leave lessons and a lasting impression
So you may as well ask — what sort of impressions are you leaving? Will it stand the test of time? One day you may find out.
Que la vie vous traite bien!
M+
Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine