It was the best of times...

You know the phrase "It's almost like Christmas!", and the accompanying usage for it? Say, you pull a book off the shelf, and inside is an envelope from the bank with $100 in it? (Yes, this happened to me once at home when I was 12.) Or, you've given up on finding that _____ and, one day, you pull a box out of the attic for something else, and there _____ is?

Well, moving can be a lot like that too. You never know what you're going to find inside of a box, especially when the movers are terrible and don't label anything. I've been unpacking all of my books, as you can see by the new LibraryThing widget to the right. Anyways, as I was replacing the book cover on one book, out fell a picture of... well we'll just say Her. I paused for a second, though it felt like an hour, and just looked at it. There I was, looking goofy and out of place as I do in almost every picture, no matter how hard I try not to. And there she is, her arms around me, a big smile, because no matter how much she hated pictures, she always made me look bad in them. And there was her bear, which was always sitting on her bed.

I couldn't be mad, in spite of what happened between us. I miss her, I really do. I just didn't expect to find that in a book. Of course, the next book I pull out to replace the cover on, has a letter from her. I read it, remembering the difficult times we were going through and, when it was written, just how bad things had gotten, and still how much they would improve.

The world goes on though. I've learned now, at least I think I have. I guess we'll see the next time I meet someone as amazing as Her.

But in remembering, I think not of the bad times, but only of the good.
For when thinking of friends you've left behind, you remember the good times.
So should it be with those from who we have parted company.