The Phone Call from Down Under

When I was teaching a women’s studies class at the college, I had a student who impressed me very much. She was writing at the graduate level and didn’t know how brilliant she was. She would sit in class absorbing every concept, every word presented. And it didn’t hurt that she had an Australian accent. I love accents. I am like my African grey parrot, I like to mimic sounds. I found the Australian accent a bit harder to mimic. But I digress from the story. This student went on to get her undergrad and master degree. She became quite successful here in Fort Wayne. She established programs to help those who had experienced violence in their lives. But that’s not all.

And very spiritual too.

Upon having personal conversations we found we had a lot in common, our spiritual beliefs and practices. We became friends. She had been through a lot in her life and had become strong as a result. Her strength at times caused me to feel fear. Would I ever gain my strength at that level, I often thought. On the other hand, she gave me hope and a renewed interest in tackling those fears in myself. Soon our work and other things in our lives made it difficult to spend time together and physically we drifted apart. I never felt a distance in our friendship on the energetic level and always considered her to be a good friend. Then one day we had breakfast and she told me she was moving back home.

Welcome to the Land Down Under

It has been 3 years now. We communicated on Facebook until I got hacked and bumped off. I got back on Facebook this week and sent her a friend request. Two hours later the phone rang and there was my friend in Australia!!!! We talked for 3 hours and some odd minutes. It was glorious. No time had really passed since we saw each other. No differences in our relationship except for the richness of how we both had grown. We are both highly spiritual which always dominates our every conversation. We always get excited about the latest concept, the latest discovery in ourselves or elsewhere and the future. Her life in Australia is rich and stress free, unlike life here. She told me of 11 weeks of mandatory vacation at her work, 37.5 hour work weeks and always double time after that. She told me of a relaxed lifestyle, the magnificent healthcare program and more. I became envious of her life and sad that the United States had become such a stressful place to life in comparison.

Friends

What struck me most and deepest is that no distance or time can lessen the love and companionship of friendship. We remain the same with friends. Though each individual makes changes, grows and has different life experiences, the friendship is always steadfast there for us. The relationship only deepens and becomes richer over time no matter what. I always know my true friends if when we have not seen each other or talked for a long time we just start talking in mid sentence from where we left off the last time we talked. I had 3+ hours on the phone with an old friend who lives down under and it was glorious. I know there will be more phone calls between the two of us. And I will be just as happy and take up right where we left off today. Friends are like that, yeah, they are.