Together Yet Apart

“I’ve so appreciated your friendship during this last, strange, year.   We’ve adapted and found new ways to be together ,yet apart.”  Kitty wrote to me in a birthday card she gave me yesterday.

But I could have easily written the same to her.  My friendships have deepened and I’m giving them more energy and time than I ever have before.

The pandemic has focused me on what is important in my life.

How I spend my time and the people I choose to surround myself with has been a big part of that.  And my friends and I, like most people,  have figured out ways to get together.

Zoom works perfectly with a couple of friends.  Another will prefers facetime.  I’m texting a friend who never even used her cell phone before the pandemic.  And then there are the walks, and now, sledding.

Sometimes, like with Kitty this weekend, it’s about dropping something off and picking something up from each other’s house.  It’s a good excuse to see each other in person, even if it’s only for ten minutes. Each of us standing in the driveway,  bundled up to keep out the cold.  We speak louder than usual through our masks and across the distance we keep from each other.

But it’s also the distance that has brought us closer together.

This strange way of living has helped me grasp how much I  want and need nourishing people in my life.  I work at keeping in touch,  I want my friends to know that I’m there for them as much as I want them to know that they’re an important part of my life.

I think my focus on friendships is also because I’m not close to my family.  They aren’t the people I would go to in a time of need.   And this has been a time of need.  A time when being supportive feels as good as getting support.  As if we’re all exposed or opened up in the same way.

“With shopping opportunities limited now, I “shopped” upstairs for some of my treasures which I hope you’ll like.” Kitty wrote in my card.  Tied with ribbons in a green velvet bundle (that Kitty knows I’ll reuse) were two beads, a little drawing of a grasshopper in a black frame, a button, a seashell, and a small handmade blank book.

Of course, I’ll think of Kitty whenever I look at or use any of these very special gifts.  Another way of being together, yet apart.