A Life Well Lived and Time With Well Loved Friends

I'm feeling a little nostalgic and very joy-filled right now.  Interesting mix of emotions and fueled by the home going of one of my long time friend's mother.  Actually, we know the whole family and we share friendship from long ago but also share in joys of a soon to be wedding of a child I've known since she was a baby and then had the joy of working with when we both were on staff at church.  The little girls that I visited in Boerne are all grown up and married yet I cherish the memories of their childhood and a very fun trip to Sea World.  My friend Marty and I go way back to junior high school.  We were in history together, Mr. Crittenden's class.  I sat between Kevin Cunningham and Gib Fowler.  It seems that Kevin and probably Gib had a crush on Marty.  What I remember about her is the report she did on Emilia Earhart.  She reminded me today that she was so nervous in front of the class that she dropped her note cards in the trash.  I have no clue what or if I even completed a book report on any subject for that class.  The details of that long ago time are still with me, but I'm not quite sure what I did yesterday.  We ran with a different crowd in high school, that is the beginning of high school.  She was a Rebelette, drill team and back in the day it wasn't dancing but drum, bugle and fife corp.  I played volleyball and hung out with rowdy band members and druggies from drama.  That is until my junior year of high school when I came to know Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.  There is where our lives converged because we shared a friendship with a mutual friend, Beth.  I started going to Willow Meadows Baptist Church and like the familiar saying goes, the rest is history.  Marty, Beth and I hung out together a lot.  In our senior year we were all dating guys who were in college, so we had a little more time on our hands.  I loved going to Marty's home.  It was so cool, they lived in a town house near the happening place, Westbury Square.  Her parents were so kind and welcoming.  Her dad if he were home, would always stop whatever he was doing and talk with me.  He made me laugh.  Her mom, always had a kind word for me even though we would laugh when she'd ask us if we'd seen her glasses and and we'd have to tell her they were on the top of her head.  They were the only family I knew who had a "damn it room."  That is a room in the home where everything under God's creation finds itself.  I have since instituted that term for rooms which have become much like the original DIR.  Right now the room formally known as our guest room and now house moving staging area has been referred to many a time as the DIR.

 Marty poured a lot of love and life into me those first few years of walking with the Lord.  We were saying today that the Lord had gathered so many of us together back then who have had profound effects on how we live out life in deed, in spirit and in ministry today.  I am thankful and grateful for long time friends, we've seen each other go through awkward times, live life bravely in perilous times, persevere, in the worst of times and in the best of times.  Through them all we have shared so much, but in the midst of it all, we've always shared laughter.  We've all seen each other through several hairstyles although Marty has been true to stay with a classic elegant look.  I think my hair choices were more disastrous.  If you doubt my decision making, please refer to my post of the lovely china I picked as a know it all 22 year old.  So today the friends and relatives of Marty and Vicky's mom, Catha, Crista, Tricia and Megan's Nana celebrated a generous life of a woman who loved God, loved her family and loved others.  I am better for knowing Mrs. Z and if you knew her, you'd probably join in echoing that same sentiment.