One is silver and the other, gold.
I love my friends. I have a lot of new friends that I love, but the friends I especially treasure are my “old” friends. Those are the friends that I’ve had for years and are what Anne of Green Gables would call “kindred spirits.” We all need many kinds of friends in our lives. We have our shopping buddies, our coffee girlfriends, our mentors, our friends who cheer us up, but nothing takes the place of a kindred spirit or two.
This week I was blessed to have one of my few kindred spirits come to stay with me for three days. Her name is Lindsey, and although we are 10 years apart in age, Nathan swears we are twins separated at birth. We laugh at the same things, have the same personality, grab the same shoes and clothes in the stores and have the same silly sense of humor. I will say this though, Lindsey is far, far braver than I am. Three and half years ago, she left Duluth (boo, hoo) and joined the Navy. Now I would never join an Armed Service, mainly because of that little thing called boot camp. But, Lindsey did and this girly girl of all girly girls, rolled in mud and ran miles and eventually became an F-18 mechanic on the USS Harry Truman. See what I mean by brave!? It was fun this week-end to hear her and my former Navy father-in-law talk. I asked Nathan, “What language are they speaking?” Navy speak, I guess. She’s being deployed later this year and that takes more bravery than anything I know! We had a blast this week-end. We giggled and talked and had adventures of all sorts. And Lindsey knows, going around with me, always means adventures. I think the last time she was here, an umbrella table flipped over in the wind and pinned me to our table at a restaurant at lunch. This time our adventures included making a fruit tree:
As you can see, she’s pretty handy in the kitchen as well as on a flight deck!
We also went cross country skiing. Although she grew up in Minnesota, she has never snow shoed or downhill skied or cross country skied. So, we went cross country skiing, but I didn’t let the Navy map expert read the trail maps, and I got us off on a wrong trail; yeah, a black diamond trail. After many falls and Lindsey actually crawling up one hill while we both laughed hysterically while rude, more experienced skiers whizzed past us, we did finally enjoy the view of Duluth:
Lindsey is waaaay more fit than I am, because she says she’s doing fine, but I can still barely walk two days later. Of course, falling in a 25-year old body, is quite different than taking numerous spills on icy trails as a 36 year-old, a fact she will find out only too soon. ☺
We also enjoyed a trip down to Bentleyville, our city’s grand lighting display, which she had never been to either. This was much tamer and lots of fun too. Free cookies, hot chocolate, and marshmallows! And lots and lots of lights right on Lake Superior!
I’m kinda choked up as I write this. All my kindred spirits live far away. My sister in Denver, my best friend in North Carolina, my friend Sarah in Michigan, and Lindsey in Virginia, but it sure does make the short times I spend with them, all the more precious. I’m finding, as Anne says, “that maybe kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think.” I’m finding new ones every now and then. New friends, new kindred spirits surprise me every now and again. But, nothing takes the place of a true, pure gold, friend, a sister of your heart.
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