The Gift of Friendship Remains True

"Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold." The old Girl Scouts song we sang as young girls rings true today as we move through life. We meet friends, we might marry, have children and meet new friends who are school parents. As our children grow up and graduate, our "old" friends from those school days may stay with us, even though the original gathering purpose is gone.

And, so it is with this blogger. Every so often, not even monthly, sometimes twice a year, a group of us, with college aged children gather at various restaurants in Silver Spring to catch up. Just catch up, share our secret "wow" restaurants, eat and imbibe! We can be as many as ten, especially when it is the birthday of one of us, or just the original three. We three gathered Tuesday night at Ray's the Classics on Colesville Road in downtown Silver Spring for absolutely no special reason at all. But it took us a good week to settle on the date to meet.

Joan Doherty has a daughter at Catholic University, Elaine Warren has a daughter at Fordham University and mine is a Terp, at the University of Maryland College Park. That's the reverse order and upside down for the photograph here: Elaine, Katie and Joan, "the girls," are decked out in Flag Day colors! We are all opposites in whatever category you may guess but we share the gift of a 15 year friendship, begun when our children were in elementary school. It is an attachment to recommend for all parents, neighbors, and fellow congregants. 

And gathering in our very special restaurant hefty downtown scene makes it all the better.  We don't have to drive to get together, we do not really even have to decide on a restaurant - we can wander along Ellsworth and pop in at any of them. Most times, though, we have made a discovery and just want to share the new place. In the case of Ray's the Classics, it is our all around favorite and a delicous-default place.

Wherever YOU are right now on your path in life, don't overlook your friends, your buddies along the way. Stay in touch if only in email or Twitter. We don't see each other daily, or even monthly. But by staying in touch and making an excuse to escape the household routine, we keep our friendship fresh and alive. You might want to try it!