Welcome to September, the “other” new year. I hope everyone had a great summer. Mine was a quiet one, quieter perhaps than I would have wanted, no big adventures, no airports or train stations. But… my mother’s diary is in the works. These last few stages seem to have taken the most time. Every step demands another 4-6 weeks. If all goes well, it should be in my hot little hand (as my mother would have said) before Christmas.

In other news, my final post before the summer break was about re-uniting with my high school friends. Just this past week, we continued our reunion with a three-night cottage retreat. Four of the five of us were able to make it, which is a shame, because we truly consider ourselves a quintet, but, we’ve all had moments when life gets in the way and things unfold they way they do, rather than the way we want.

We had a great three days. There was a lot of story telling to explain how and where we’ve landed. We covered decades, careers, kids, grandkids, and marital upsets and resets. We gave each other a lot of support; what I didn’t hear, was a lot of regret. Regret–what a waste of time that is. Life is being satisfied in your current circumstances–not how satisfied you’d be if only things were different.

I did get to apologize for painting my friend’s eye lids with nail polish during frosh week. Yes, you read that right. She had the grace to acknowledge that being that age means that brains can temporarily disappear.

More than a few times, we commented on who would have thought we’d be making dinner together all these years later? And yet, there we were. There is something special about being with friends who, outside of family, are the people who’ve known you the longest. We’ve all learned life lessons, we’ve grown from girls to crones, but the consistent thread of mannerisms, cadence of speech, the same way of laughing, makes us who we are and sparks those feelings of familiarity. 

We were just getting started when it was time to go. We’re making it annual event.

Keep your joy.

Anne Milne is an every Sunday blogger, unless it’s a holiday weekend. Or summertime.