A Meditation on Friendship

I've been at the Bucks County Designer House nearly every day now. Today is finally a day off.  This is the most I’ve seen of what most of the world considers a “real job” in 4 years!  I'm used to structuring my day around what my medium - plaster- and my customers need, not by the clock.  I have to be there by 10,and not leave until all the customers have left and it’s time for me to turn off the fountains, music and lights.  It’s kind of weird and exhausting to be back in the world of 9-5. 

So it's my first day away from the Meditation Room, and I am heading off to a funeral. Which has me meditating on life and friendship.

A very good friend of mine died of cancer on Thursday.  She was only 57.  She was very supportive when I was first starting out in 1990, finding things for me to paint that really didn’t need to be painted, bushes that just had to be trimmed, and even walking her dog Holly.  Then she moved on and bought a new house, and found things for me to paint in there as well.  Later she became my trainer at the utility company when I first got a job there, but I would still paint for her now and then because I never gave up the painting business.  I think she always saw in me a person who needed to do more to express myself.

I will miss her, even though we lost touch in the last few years, my having moved on from my corporate job to plaster full time, and she having also moved on doing lots of community service things and being more and more involved at work.  I would think about her often, remembering her love for her dog Holly and how heartbreaking it was when Holly passed away.  I made a picture collage for her and she cried when I gave it to her. Then she got a new dog Mickey who from what I last heard, chewed on just about everything.  I was wondering when she’d be calling me to replace her molding in her new house.  I will always have fond memories of Linda and her laugh and smile and always having  kind word for everyone.  She was a special person in my life.

So today, even though the music, fountain and lights that were Linda have been turned off, I will never forget her wonderful presence.  Goodbye Linda, it was a pleasure to know you and work for you all those years. Thank you for believing in me, and for being a part of my life.

--Lori