So after a weekend where I “enjoyed” the worst work travel experience I’ve ever had [thanks for that BA, you made an impression] I came home to find two very important and dear people in my life had given birth to two – soon to be very important – children on exactly the same day.
This made me happy.
Very happy.
Not just because having a healthy baby is a thing to celebrate, but because both new Mum’s are wonderful, caring, clever people [and the blokes who played a part in all of this aren’t bad either] and their actions have just made a positive contribution to a happier society.
Unfortunately, given both of them live in other countries, I don’t when I will be able to be introduced to the little ones – I’m still waiting for an intro to Mr Environments bundle of fun – but I hope it’s soon because not only do I want to come face to face with the little sods, but I want to see my friends faces and talk to them about how they feel and how they’ve changed.
NP has been very gracious in humouring me on this topic ever since he delightful son was born, but with Tony [Environment Boy], Juanita & Charlie [the new Mum’s], they are friends I’ve known [and actually met, ha] for a very long time and as such, I have more of an understanding of who they are or who they were so can judge the impact more clearly.
I love these 3 friends very much …
In all cases, their friendship, advice, commitment, compassion and companionship have gone way beyond the call of duty – especially Charlie and Tony, who without their help, I may easily have drowned under a sea of some hard, scary & tough periods I had in my life – so I hope they know how much they meant to me, even if truth be known, they’ll never really grasp how much they mean to me.
I know it’s heavily influenced by the age of my friends, however I still find it amazing that 3 of the 5 most important friends in my life have all had healthy children this year – which means regardless of what else has happened in this past 12 months, or what is still to happen in the remaining 6 or 7 weeks – 2010 can go down as a stellar year and that is definitely worth feeling positive about.
I must admit, I do wish I had been able to be there when they had their kids.
To support them before and to celebrate with them after.
OK, so I kinda did, but this is one of those times where ‘virtual’ doesn’t really do it justice.
Yes I know they had oodles of support from people – people who, in the scheme of things, were/are more important and necessary than me – but the fact is, every single thing that’s ever happened to me that mattered over the past 10-15 years has in some way, involved or revolved around them and I just feel I’ve let them down because at possibly the most significant point in their life, I wasn’t there to share.
Maybe I’m being a selfish prick.
Maybe I feel this way because it’s more evidence I’m getting older and that my view of what real friendship is, is as rose-tinted as the one’s featured in the show ‘The Wonder Years’ [a show I cried at when I heard how life turned out for the characters in the final minutes of the final episode] but I hope not, because while I do wish they were all just down the road so we could be more actively involved in eachothers lives [one of the sacrifices of moving so much, though to be fair, I met all these 3 because I moved so much] the real reason for my melancholy is because I’d love to be there to see, share and add to the excitement.
Anyway that’s me being a sentimental old fart again, so to my dearest Charlie & Juanita [though it should be the other way round because I think – thanks to some questionable time difference calculations – Juanita had her baby first] I want to say a huge congrats [and the hubbies] and let you know I am very happy, proud and excited for you all.