21 Years and Changing

My friend celebrated her 21^st birthday a couple of weeks ago. Twenty-one.

She still has the long, flowing hair that I have admired since first meeting her eight or so years ago.  She is unchanged in other ways too, such as in her distinct air of propriety and elegance that has always led me to suspect that she must have royalty in her blood. Her stubbornness and underlying mischievousness still spring forth and make her who she is. But, of course, she is also different from the girl I first knew, whether she recognizes it or not. Life and experiences, frustration and laughter, words and images, have changed us all.  

I step back for a moment and look around. Another friend departs. I make a fresh acquaintance. An idea crumbles. I hear a strange echo. I lack words in a new situation.  It´s uncomfortable trying to identify how to react, how to prepare for what you don´t know, how to stand alone when before you had company, how to call a new number when you have the old one memorized.

Change. Life brings it. God sometimes requires it. The thought of it thrills us. The reality of it shakes our core.

And so, my wish for my young friend is this…that the change life brings may gracefully mold her into increasing richness of character, and that those changes will simultaneously reveal to her the dimensions and strength of the unmovable foundation whereon she stands.