Night-Blooming Cereus

This past weekend was filled with social networking. The internet was not involved. The splendid outdoors overflowing with fall foliage was not a screen saver. Friends had actual conversations with other friends. Eye contact was made with friends, a bull and a buffalo. We played chicken with actual chickens. Embraces were shared (with the friends not the chickens). We sat on porches. We sat around tables and ate and drank together. We felt the same breeze and walked on the same leaves and dodged the same falling acorns. They were not virtual acorns. They were oak nuts and if they made contact with your head,you felt it. Loving glances were exchanged and they too were felt. Glasses were raised and stories were told. Some feelings of love and acceptance and history and comfort and gratitude are expressed silently. They were felt and they were felt deeply. We solved global issues while sipping bourbon and devouring banana bread. We watched horses and cows and cats and dogs amble around the pasture. We watched birds perch on the feeders and dart off to nearby branches. Our olfactory systems engaged with pigs and thankfully a eucalyptus tree. We had the opportunity to experience that joyful moment of reunion when you see the face of a loved one at the airport. It has always been a blessing made even more powerful post 9-11. We re-lived past shared vacations and gatherings. Fears and concerns were confessed along with joys and successes. There were many laugh-out-loud moments. The clinking of glasses and smiles on these faces seem so familiar. These are the friends with whom you have shared so many pivotal moments in your life. You have been together at happy and sad occasions and leaned on each other with the consistent support of a  lifelong friendship. They have seen you cry and made you laugh and seen you laugh until you cried. You want them by your side at weddings and vacations and sports victories and holidays and celebrations. You need them by your side when medical emergencies blindside you or difficult decisions need to be made. Phone calls in the middle of the night are always placed to these friends and they always answer. They are the same people you call for validation and encouragement when you have bent a fender or tied up a door-to-door religious zealot. They are there for you when your team wins and more importantly when it loses. They are there to pick you up and perk you up when the acorns feel more like meteors. These friends are the night-blooming cereus* figures in your life. They are always beautiful but their most spectacular blooms arrive in the dark of night. Just when you thought they couldn't possibly illuminate your life any more.


* The night-blooming cereus is a flowering cacti plant that blooms at night