These are some of my friends. There is a nice picture in this same roll but I think I like this silly one best.

They are old friends from back in time when we set off to find ourselves (mind & spirit) at a camp in the mountains of southern Montana. We shared and continued to share formative life experiences. We fell in love with the same men and women and some of us went on to marry them while the rest of us laugh about the love triangles past. We finished school and grappled with our vocations. We experienced devastating losses. We’ve been married and divorced and shacked up. Some of us have beautiful children and a dog. We can pick back up from where we left off ten years ago. These friends are precious to me. These friends are a rare gift.

We were together to celebrate the wedding of another of our number. Our friend David fell in love with his partner Lee and we joined them to celebrate their newly created right to be married in the state of Minnesota. There’s a long way to go until marriage equality is the norm, but I was so proud to be there for that moment and so privileged to spend that time with these friends.

As always, I love coming home. But this time there was a heaviness, too. I am bursting with the nostalgia of those sunlit days where we lived together and played in a wide meadow, the days when we had no idea what our futures would hold. I’m so glad those futures find us all together still, even if it’s only every once in awhile.