You know your friendship is real when your friend is on the floor with with the department store employee wrestling the leggings off the mannequin because its the one you like and the only one your size is on the mannequin. It was a bizarre sight to behold as it unfolded in front of my eyes and finally A walked over to me triumphantly holding the desired item of clothing. A and I go shopping once in a very long while and we both know to make those hours count because it will be many months before we do this again. This trip as long and painful as it was netted a few useful things in colors I have not worn for decades. We spruced up A's ancient wardrobe too.
Learning to accept that I am now much closer to the end than the beginning of life has been difficult, there is so much that will never get done. The lack of interest in clothes shopping is part of the territory I think as it seems to decline further with every passing year. While struggling with the passage of time, I have learned to switch gears from what I can and cannot do to finding ways to give those I love a running start so they could go further faster - the ones that are young, still full of dreams and the energy to pursue them.
Proximity to my mentees has somehow opened my eyes to the world of color and brightness that I had left behind in times when I was their age. They make it easier to me to live in fuller color - I may have fewer dreams that will come true but if I do my job right the dreams of some young people I love and care for might come real. Thanks to A, I have come into some colorful leggings that I would have only admired from afar but not gone that kind of distance to acquire.
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