Unconditional friendship

One of my best male friends is moving with his family this week. We have been friends for almost 2 decades and he has been so important and so supportive for as long as I can remember. We have faded in and out of each others lives for years. Talk consistently for a few months, then not for a few months, in and out, back and forth- the way true friends do. I know his family and they all know me, from his daugther to his mom. I have never known anyone who I didn't give birth to who was consistently so pleased to see me.

All of the major decisions I've made, since I was about 20 I have discussed with him. There was not much that happened, that he didn't know about eventually. And with all the the choices, good or bad, all of the messes I've gotten myself in to, and there were plenty, he was always there with support and kind words. Even if I couldn't BE more wrong. He allowed me to make my decisions and make my choices and never tried to push his own opinions on me, even though I know him well enough to know he had them. Whenever I was feeling down or sad, a quick phone call was all I needed to cheer me up and make me feel like I could make it through. I'm certain that I have not been as crucial to his life as he has been to mine. We have spouses and children and lives that are so incredibly different, but we share a friendship that has lasted a long time and has always meant more to me that he probably even realizes.

He sent me an email recently about friendship and how people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. I don't have it handy, but I'm sure it's been rotated before because I've read it before. And I truly feel that he is a friend for a lifetime. I know I will still talk to him and I know I will see him ag
ain- but it makes me sad how we move on. People come in and out of your life and you just keep going, sometimes not even looking at those we have left behind. And sometimes, constantly looking back- and wishing we could have taken them along.

I have lost touch with many friends whom I thought I would know my whole life. And I have kept in touch with people who I was certain were merely around for a short duration. There's little rhyme or reason to why people come in and out of your life- and you can't control how long they will stay. Loss is hard. I've lost alot of people I love, some of them by no fault of my own- and some of them were the direct result of something I was at fault for. Sometimes it's just the way life moves us through.

I don't know where I'm going with this. There is no easy way to say goodbye when you know there a chance that perhaps it's goodbye for good. Maybe our lives will get busy and eventually the phone calls will get to be few and far between. Weeks turn to months, to years and all of a sudden, a long time has been TOO long. It's just the way things go and sometimes you can't change that no matter how much you want to.

A reason, a season or a lifetime.

Either way.

To you:
In the end I'm so very grateful for the friendship we share and for how you have added more to my life than you will ever understand.