You can meet friends anywhere...

So, last night, Richard and I met our friends Maureen & Arthur for dinner at Rick's Cafe & Grill in Kingston, NH http://www.ricksgrille.com/ and we had a great dinner. We haven't seen them probably in over a year...man, how time flies. It was so great to see them again...we really miss spending time with them. We had fun getting caught up on what's been happening in our lives and promising that it wouldn't be so long in between visits. I met Maureen back in 1996 when I started working in Boston and taking the commuter rail from Haverhill to Boston (man, what a long commute that was). When I first started taking the train, I would read a lot but then as the weeks went by, you would see the same people every day and you end up chatting. Well, we had a great group in the morning on the 6:15 am train (I think that was the ungodly time we took the train or something very close to that) and Maureen and I struck up a friendship.

After a while, I got smart to the fact that if I drove to Reading to catch the same train, I would have more options for trains coming home (there were only a few that went all the way to Haverhill). And, we were still able to hook up and commute together just for a shorter period of time. I met lots of great friends, some of whom I still keep in touch with.

Which brings me to when Richard and I moved to Danvers and I started taking the train from Salem. Again, standing on the platform, you see the same people day in and day out and I became friends with a few commuters, one being my friend Rebecca. Rebecca and I met in 1999. When I stopped commuting into Boston, we still continued to be friends and our husbands became good friends. She also gave me a twice in a lifetime experience -- she asked me to be the birth coach for both of her children. What an amazing, emotional experience. Thank you Rebecca.

Now that I live in NH, we don't get to see each other as often, but today, she and her family came up for a visit and we had a great time!

So, the moral of my story is, you never know when and where you are going to meet special friends...it could be on a train, or in a plane or in another country (we met really good friends when we were stuck in Paris during 9/11 and were asked to photograph their daughter's wedding a couple of years ago in South Carolina). Cherish all your friendships and be thankful for friends. People come in and out of your life at different times and for different reasons. I am so blessed.

This Memorial Day, remember all the people who have touched your life in a special way and be thankful.

Best,

Chris