Museum Village

By Carrie Jacobson

I saw old friends these past two weekends, and my heart rejoiced.

I traveled both weekends, and visited with people who have mattered in my life, changed my life, and will always be dear to my heart.

My mother never made it to the Internet, but friends of hers would print out things from the net and give them to her. One she treasured was a little word poem, about friends.

They come into your life for a reason, this piece of writing goes. They might be friends for a season, or a year, or a lifetime – the point is to treasure the friendship for as long as it lasts, and to understand that the friends who come and go are not friends you have lost, but are friends who came into your life to affect it.

My mother loved this thing. I think it gave her an out. I think it made it OK for her to see friends come and go, and it absolved her from feeling that a friend who was no longer a friend meant failure.

Like my mother, I am a person who holds on. Even when my life moves away from my friends’ lives, they live in my heart. I think of them, I remember them, I treasure gifts they gave me, memories we made together, words they said – and now, paintings they made.

So, seeing my old friends these past weekends has left me happy. It filled a place that was not empty, but needed something. It needed renewal, it needed freshening. It needed new memories.

If you’re interested in this painting, please contact me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com.