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Friends

 

Morton Chalfy

©5/19/2011

 

I moved to Alameda in January 2010 to live with my teen age sweetheart of over 50 years ago to see if we could live happily ever after.  So far so good.

Among the many adjustments I have made is the intense socializing she has introduced me to.  She is a very social person with rafts of friends who enjoys entertaining them and mixing them with each other and that has presented a new way of life to me.  Since my arrival we have hosted numerous dinner parties, brunch open houses and big parties.  We have dined out with friends, dined in with them and driven around the San Francisco Bay area to schmooz and listen to music.

All in all I have found it a very rewarding experience and one which has re-taught me a very old lesson.  Friends make life worth living.  Friends make each day easier, every occasion more pleasurable, every meal more delicious.  Friends share their lives with each other and by so doing enhance the enjoyment of life and ease its pains.

Because my sweetheart has made it her business to cultivate friendships I have learned to do the same.  Because she has actively sought to introduce me to possible friends since my arrival and because she has chosen really wonderful people to introduce me to I can now say that I feel very much at home because of the shared kindnesses I’ve received.

At my stage of life (late) it is easy to turn inward, shut down and wait to die.  Instead friends pull you out of your shell, share food, drink and stories with you and generally make life the sort of event it is meant to be.  As one with a propensity for solitude I will be grateful for the rest of my life for the lesson that friends must be sought out, cultivated, shared with and in return add sparkle, meaning and enjoyment to life.

At the beginning of any relationship the future is unknown.  At the beginning Time is conditional since any moment can bring a nasty surprise and rupture the relationship.  As we go along though, as we relax with one another, Time stretches out to the horizon and fears of ruptures recede.  Love and friendships have combined to relax me until now my Timeline in the Bay area stretches out further than I can see.  For which I am very grateful.

Now, if my grandchildren could only visit more often…..

 

www.mortonchalfy.com