I have been hanging out here for a year now and today is the 100th post on this blog! Wow, it has been an interesting year and I am pleased with myself for hanging in here and finding something to talk about that many times, different and maybe weirder each time!
There were some sad days--telling Belle goodbye especially--and some good ones. Among those, welcoming first little Rojo and then Ginger into the family, good visits with some fiends and kinfolk, and most recently, Ginger's and my hike up the mountain on Easter! I have no doubts that the next year will see new adventures, new problems, new challenges and new triumphs. That is what life is about.
I think I ought to dedicate my words today to Friends. Goodness knows I have been blessed with such an amazing bunch of them, each one a very special, unique and significant person who brought his or her own amazing gifts and wisdom, love and inspiration into my life. Some of them are now gone yet I recall them with great fondness and truly feel that as long as they remain in my memories and in my heart, they are not truly gone. I do have photos and mementos of most but they are really not needed. (A few of them are on my Pinterest page dedicated to special people--www.pinterest.com/azwriter427/veryspecialpeople/.) I also totally trust that I will see them again and once more enjoy the comradeship, partnership, and sustaining love we knew. Those who are still around remain integral parts of my life--thought of every day, worried about when I do not see or hear from them for awhile, and cherished and enjoyed when I do. I do not have to name names! Each one of you knows who you are and that I truly mean it when I say, "You are a very special person to me and always will be." It doesn't matter if we do not communicate for days, weeks, even months--the love is still there, as real and encompassing as ever!
I added a new friend this past week. We got into contact through one of those match sites which are almost worthless but now and then provide a path to connect with someone that you otherwise might never know. This gentleman grew up just across the mountains from me in Central Arizona. His folks had a ranch and he also went to a tiny one-room school for a few grades and then had to suffer the shock of moving on to a 'town school' and being a bit of the odd kid out. We knew a lot of people in common and one set of his grandparents did live in the Verde Valley, in a community where I attended a slightly larger rural school from fourth through seventh grades. His wife had passed away in November 2004, a year after Jim.
Neither one of us is seriously looking to move in with someone and try to build a new partnership--if it happens and seems to be inevitable, we'd bow to fate but it's not the near term goal. Still it was nice to sit and talk of old and familiar times and places with one having so much in common. Friends are always good and one can never have too many! That is one reason why I am hesitant now to even consider an exclusive relationship because it does limit you. You almost have to focus intently on one person and let others fall farther into the background. A casual lunch date with another person of the opposite sex might be permissible but also might be viewed as 'cheating' even if it was totally innocent. So I do not plan to go there!
So today "to all the boys I've loved before" (to paraphrase a song of which I am rather fond!) and all the girls who are part of my circle of sister-friends, sisters in spirit if not in blood or sorority-type ties, this one is for you! Walk in peace and beauty, in harmony and balance for he rest of your days and know our spirits walk together, here and in the future!
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Tomorrow I will get some shots of new mesquite leaves posted. I think they will come out as I took care to get the distance and focus right and the light to show the best of the lovely color. Spring is here! My hummingbirds are back, lilacs and roses are now blooming, and despite some blips in the weather which bring us mostly wind and a bit of brief cooling, hints of summer's approach are already making themselves felt. That is the wonder of the desert--I sometimes say our four seasons are not summer, almost summer, summer, and just past summer! We're in the almost now with an occasional glance back at not summer almost with a degree of nostalgia! But since I am a summer/sun/hot person, the nostalgia is limited.
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