good vibrations

DAY 4


today i joined mama for lunch with 6 of her girlfriends from nursing school. what a fun bunch! we dined at red lobster--a restaurant that i have never visited, despite its ubiquity. they are a lovely gaggle, and my, do they know how to make one another laugh! topics of conversation included: children, grandchildren, travel, old nursing stories, the decline in the quality of nursing these days, and the facts of growing older. observing this wonderful group of women--who have known each other for the majority of their lives--proved to me that true friends are not necessarily the ones you see the most often... true friends are the ones in whom you trust, lean on, and laugh with in the same way after a year's separation as you would after only a day's. i believe that we have a variety of friends for a variety of reasons, each one there to fulfill a different need of ours, or to complement a different aspect of ourselves, but all of them equally precious, and the best of them unsusceptible to the distance or time between us. before i left for the summer i had already begun to reflect on this--how fortunate i am to have such amazing people in my life, and how glad i am to be in theirs. good friends are a true gift that keep us real and vital. 


it's interesting, as we age, to begin to see our parents as whole and human individuals--removed from the pedestals of our childhoods, they suddenly have flaws and are in possession of at least one lifetime before we knew them, of which we know nothing about. today, i really felt that i saw my mom as a girl, in her twenties, surrounded by beloved friends, gossiping and giggling and drinking of the fountain of youth, for what could keep one younger than timeless relationships?

following our day with the girls, we ventured over to the milton club for dinner and some live music. just n tyme is a cover band my uncle and his lady (sandy) insisted we get to see. performing the dayton circuit for years now, they are a well-known group at the milton club, and they drew a decent-sized and lively crowd. they played it all--from country, to rock, to oldies, to sublime. we danced, we sang along, and the front man shaked his groove thang all across that room, atop our table, and even on my lap! with a man like that to lead the crowd it would have been hard not to have a good time--so without resistance, we all got down and funky for 4 whole hours.

rockin out on stage with the band

my favorite part of the evening was watching everyone dance. there are so many different styles and ways to move! some are more rhythmic than others, but they all reach the same end. why is music so magical? what else can move an entire crowd...to tears, to laughter, to happiness, to lust, to just gettin jiggy with it...??? nothing that i can think of gets in our bones as completely and universally as music does. music can speak for me when i have no words, and it draws me outside of myself--when dancing with music i am no longer a construction of my consciousness, i am just a vibration, letting more-beautiful vibrations wash over me and stir me as the waves do to kelp. and the truth is, when you're moving to the music it doesn't matter what you look like, as long as you're feelin it you're golden.

to end the night, the band paid tribute to our troops, who are overseas fighting three wars while we ate, drank, and were merry, by singing god bless america to our flag. my heart goes out to all the servicemen and women and to their families. their sacrifice is greater than i feel i'll ever know.