Tonight, I saw an old friend.  We get to see each other once a year.  She in New York, I in California, living on opposite coasts.  But when we meet, it's like time stood still (except when I look at how much her three boys have grown).  And there we are, lounging and laughing, just like our college days back in Berkeley.  Saying goodbye always makes me sad and grateful at the same time.  Sad that I won't get to see her for another year but grateful that I can have such old friends.


I had a Simon and Garfunkel phase.  I just love the imagery of old friends sitting on a park bench like bookends.  

Old friends, old friends
Sat on the park bench like bookends
A newspaper blown threw the grass
Falls on the round toes 
Of the high shoes of the old friends


Old friends, winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city shifting through trees
Settle like dust on the shoulders of the old friends


Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy
Old friends, memories brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears