A Flurry of New Friends

It's snowing here today. And it's breathtakingly beautiful. I love snow.

When I woke up this morning, I looked out the window and detected a few random snowflakes. VERY few. Came downstairs, made my coffee, and while standing at the kitchen window, noticed that the snowflakes were coming a bit heavier. Right now, mug o' joe in hand, in my favorite recliner, I can look out seven different windows, and I'm in a snowglobe! The flakes are playfully spinning first slowly, then frantically racing, and finally, coming down in earnest, covering the ground with icy lace. It's going to be a beautiful weekend. Three to six inches of the white stuff predicted for tomorrow. Ahhh. . . I really love it.

And we're enjoying a flurry of new friends here, too. We live in an area with quite a few retired/semi-retired folks. People are certainly busy but there is a noticeably slower pace of life here and it's charming. People are willing to take the time to get to know each other. Just my cup of tea since I love to meet new people. And, interestingly, we aren't identified by our professions; we aren't caught up in the trappings of the work that we do or did. And people aren't usually frenzied to get from one appointment to another.

Yesterday, we went to our doctor's office for our flu shots (better late than never!), and ended up visiting for quite a while with the nurse who gave us the injections. While the conversation went from needle size to platelet donations (I'm a regular), he shared with us the story of his wife whose life was extended by two years because of regular platelet infusions and a bone marrow transplant she had while valiantly fighting leukemia. We weren't in a big hurry so we stayed and visited with him for about twenty minutes. It was a breath of fresh air to meet and visit with James.

Ginny, Ben, Mary, Debbie ---some of our new friends from church choir. Bernie, Kay, Marty, Dave, Joan, Jim -- some of our new friends from our neighborhood. It's great fun to get to know new people, to spend time together, and to laugh together.

Taking time to really get to know someone is a luxury that we can enjoy during this time of our lives. It takes my breath away. Just like the first snow of the season.