Day 170...A Renewal of Spirit

The Phoenix's promise is always one of renewal....the main reason it is our mascot...because renewal seems to be the theme of our lives. Renewal is more than just starting fresh, though...it also means coming full-circle.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to fill a huge void in my life after almost 25 years. I reconnected with my oldest friend from childhood, Kelley. Friends come and go in our lives. More often, they go. But sometimes, they come and stay, even when it appears as though they've left us for good. This was the case with Kelley.

We met in the sixth grade. I was new to the neighborhood, and she caught me up walking home from school one day. That conversation lasted for the next six years, and took us through some incredible adventures as well as some unbelievably hard times. We drifted apart somewhat in our senior year of high school, as teens often do during those volatile years, but even after I got married, and she moved away to college, the memories we'd made haunted me....and her absence created a void that I was never able to fill...although it took me a few years to realize what was causing the ache in my heart.

Over the past 20 years or so, I've tried so hard to find her....to reconnect to that missing piece of my soul, but time and again, my efforts went to no avail. Thanks to the miracle of Facebook, I was finally able to find her again...and I have thanked God every day since.

The older I get, the more I realize that my friends are a rare and precious gift, and each one is like a fine jewel. I think these jewels must be what our crowns will be encrusted with in heaven, for I can't imagine wanting or needing anything more precious with which to spend eternity. We do not get to choose our family, as precious as they may be to us....but our choice of friendships is ours alone, and can be made or broken by our own hands. These days, I treasure each new friend I make like they are the only one I'll ever have, because I realize that true friendship does not ever grow old. It becomes an heirloom to be passed down...like great memories...to future generations. The older the friendship, the more valuable it becomes. And a friendship that has been carelessly tended or destroyed may never be replaced.

I am truly humbled and thankful beyond measure that my oldest friendship has been restored to me. I have a second chance. In this renewal process, my life has come full-circle, and I am once again whole.

And that is the Promise of the Phoenix.