No Expiration Date

When we moved into our new home, one of the many things I was excited about was the fact that we would have room for an extra fridge in the garage.  I was thankful for the extra space and knew it would come in handy during the holidays with extra meals and in the summer for the popsicles and the extra milk that didn’t fit in the kitchen fridge.  Extra space is always a plus.

The other day, I thought I’d check to see if there was anything in the garage fridge that needed to go.   Low and behold, there was a gallon of milk with an expiration date of December 8th.  Ick.   I didn’t dare open it, but had to so I could recycle the container and not have sour milk in the trash for a week.   It had expired in so many ways.   I won’t tell you that there were little curds exiting the mouth of the container.  That wouldn’t be polite.

When you think about it, most things have an expiration date; cheese, milk, your warranty on the fridge, your unused gift cards, last year’s boots that aren’t in style anymore.  Most things expire.

However.

I found one thing yesterday that by the grace of God, had not expired.   A dear friend of mine from high school contacted me after twenty-five years (yes I realize this dates me, but I’m fine with that) and suggested we meet to catch up.  I couldn’t wait to see her.  I was giddy all week looking forward to our dinner and on the drive to meet her, I felt like a 10 year-old girl going to her first sleep-over.

After all this time, we talked for four hours straight and shared our life stories of college, marriage, children, work, friends, faith, books and so much more.  Our lives were so similar in so many ways. The part that caught me off guard was how easy it was to talk to her even though you would have thought our friendship had passed its expiration date after decades of being out of touch.  It was like craving a cold drink and then finding the last diet soda behind the salad bowl and jar of olives in the fridge and when you pull out the can, it’s still refreshing and quenches your thirst.   Our friendship felt as if it hadn’t expired at all.  

On the drive home, all I could think about was how wonderful it was to talk with her and how strong our relationship could be by now had we not lost touch.  It saddened me that so much time had slipped through us and can’t really say why.   We just drifted a bit and have now sailed right across each other’s path once again and it was so wonderful for lack of a better word.

I hope that we can continue where we left off last night and start making up for lost time with phone calls, letters and e-mails.  I would so enjoy that.  It’s nice to know that even though the extra gallons of milk in the fridge may expire, friendship never really does.