Birthday celebration

I saw the EENT doctor today to be sure I'm not contagious, and he gave me the all-clear so I could join Sue and her dear friends Sara and Shirlee for Sue's 71st birthday dinner. I was so determined to be able to make it. And I did. Hooray.

These opening lines from one of Neruda's 100 love sonnets have always been the lines I think of, for Sue and me:

Love, what a long way, to arrive at a kiss,
what loneliness-in-motion, toward your company!

We met when I was 66 and she was 65, but it was just in time. And here we are, six years later, interwoven in each other's lives. What miracles may be.

Sue and Sara have been friends for forty-four years through countless changes. Now Sara, who is eleven years older than Sue, says, "I'm interested in the landscape of old age." It changes so quickly, so surprisingly. Every day a revelation.