Truer Words Were Never Spoken

Jim and I have moved around a lot during the 20 (!) years that we've lived together. Literally, we've been north, south, east, and west. Probably the hardest part of moving like that is feeling like you're leaving your friends behind when you move away from them. I'm truly thankful, though, that I have managed to maintain friendships with people throughout the years, regardless of the miles and years that have separated us. I literally have friends that I've known since grade school days (Facebook has helped here a bit, but others I've kept in touch with since back in the days that we actually (gasp!) wrote letters on this thing called paper. I have friends who I've worked with at one office or another. And I have friends without whom my life would be totally incomplete. With a lot of these fantastic people, we might go months, or even years, without speaking, but once we hear each other's voices, it's like we've never been apart. That's what true friendship is. Today's picture is a great example of that. This wind chime was given to me by a great friend of mine, Carrine, when we left New Jersey in 2008. Carrine and I worked together, but she was more than my boss. She was a fantastic friend. We had laughed and cried together too many times than we could possibly count, and we both knew we'd miss each other terribly. These days, we don't talk as much as either of us would like to. But she called me yesterday morning, and it was so great to just hear her voice. Each time I look outside and see these chimes, I think of her, and of all of my other wonderful friends. My life would be simply empty without them.