Greetings Faith Blog followers ( all 3 of you!!!!)-Today is Tuesday and we are leaving in four days. I have spent the last four months looking forward to beginning my new job, and dreading leaving the safety of my community of family and friends. A real conundrum, right? As the youngest child in my family ( most of you know I was a "change of life baby"!), I longed for company--my siblings are considerably older, and had lives of their own by the time I really understood the value of friendship--say in pre-school. I begged my mother to allow me to have sleepovers, and she indulged me probably way too often for her sake. I looked forward to having a full house of girls, or cramming into the car to go skating or to see a movie.Yup, my love for all things cinematic started when I was a little "colored girl" growing up on the southside. I can remember watching and loving Payton Place, Gone With The Wind, Abbott and Costello, The Sound of Music, Claudine, A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich, Car Wash (though I probably should not have been allowed to see that one),and Grease, when I, like Oprah Winfrey fell in love with John Travolta. Had he met me when I was in my impetuous twenties, I just might be a Scientologist today. Seriously. Those Scientologists have that Success Mojo. But I digress...
A few of my gurrls and I have been trading posts back and forth via Facebook--sending hugs and and messages of love, nostalgia, and the overall impending sense of loss you feel when you miss your friend. Your true friends. To say that leaving my friends is hard is truly, truly an understatement. I have been so fortunate to meet and fall in love with such a dynamic, colorful, complex,devoted, loving, slightly neurotic, multi-faceted, classy, worldly, brillant women and men--my contemporaries and older, former students,past colleagues, and dedicated mentors--that the thought of meeting other people of your stature seems downright impossible.
But I will let you all in on a secret. Shortly after my mother's death I had a dream about her. It seemed so real and I was so comforted by seeing her again. She knew that I was sad and overwhelmed, not only by her death, but by having two small children, working, and being in graduate school. She also knew that I was beginning to really see the vision I wanted for my life, but that I did not have a road map for getting there. I could not reconcile the fact that while I had signed on to be an academic that I also longed for a very comfortable lifestyle--not necessarily one that junior faculty and administrator salaries could provide. Couple that with the fact that our growing family was strapped for cash, and I was a complete wreck. My mother was so calm and so sincere when she cupped my face in her hands and she said, "My daughter is going to be fine. Better than fine. My daughter is rich." And we hugged, and then it was over.
Initially I believed ( and hoped ) that she was speaking in monetary terms--would I win the Lotto or meet a rep for a big publishing company who just loved my book idea?? But as time has passed, I realized she meant that I have what money can't buy:real friends and that makes me the ultimate millionare. I genuinely love meeting new people and opening my heart to them, and sharing stories, experiences, and feelings.But most of all, I find pleasure in the love I share with my friends--be they near or far. It only takes one phone call for us to take up where we left off, whether it's on the beach in St. Thomas or South Shore, at The Beautiful Restaurant on Cascade BLVD, Fisk University Chapel, Nordstrom, The Landmark Century, New Buffalo, The Vinyard, The Conrad Hotel, Trump Towers, Happy Nails,Tailored beginnings, Hyde Park Learning Center, Power Circle Congregation, The Bing,The African Hedonist, Indestructible Consciousness, The Ethiopian Diamond, you get the picture.
Please friends, be sure to remind me of all this when I start balling. Umm, too late.
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