There’s something soul-soothingly familiar about old friends.  They evoke memories of places and times only temporarily forgotten, their smell just as so, their addictive laughter, the assuage of their touch.  You don’t know how much you miss them until you’re there, in the moment, and the friendship you’ve shared feels like one fluid movement, never losing it’s momentum.  

It’s when you hold hands because it connects you in a way that you yearn to soak up all of in just a short weekends time.

And in between hand-holding and arms clutched, linking us together as one entity, one of the boys yell out “Work it, Work it!”  The trigger resonates through our bodies and in a seconds time we pop into our pose of choice, the (so not) sexy face pose.  It’s one of my signature moves.  I don’t know why, but this always looks really good in my head.

And then we resume…

Get togethers like these are far and too few in between.  They seem to always be sparked by events used as excuses to reunite in mini-vacation style.  Bachelorette parties and baby showers and weddings.  They include crashing at each others houses and soaking up families of four, two being the 4-legged kind.  Meet Igby and Knute, the biggest love mushes of all time.

And someday, when these exciting milestones run dry, I imagine and hope we’ll find our own excuses to reunite.  This weekend was no exception to this, as one of our sorority sisters, but mainly one of our friends, was getting married.

And there we sat together, as old friends, finding ourselves once again holding hands.  And as our eyes puddled over from joy, we looked on as one of our girls, Dawn, proudly said her vows.

Good lord she was beautiful, beaming with all that this day held for her.  And from the bottom of our hearts, we couldn’t have been happier or more honored to share in the celebration.

There’s a thing we do at weddings and it involves bad singing and mostly made up words that slur together forming a hum to a tune that was supposed to be.  It’s a right of passage of sorts.  And as luck would have it, the only one of us who can actually recite the real lyrics to this anthem was at home with her 2 week old son (we missed you Beth!).  But thank the lord she was on phone alert as we received the frames via email to the tune of salad being served.  So, there we were, surrounding Dawn and Johan, arms wrapped and bodies swaying as we sang from the back of menu cards and napkins, making our best attempt of what we call “The Alpha Chi Wedding Song,” because we have no idea the real name.

There’s a verse from the ceremony that continues to resonate with me, stuck echoing in my mind like a ceremonial chant.  “A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” – Ecclesiastes 4:12.  And then I think of all of us girls who’ve shared so many firsts together, who’ve laughed and cried and smoked cigarettes out the dorm windows and prayed we didn’t get caught by standards.  When I think about the breadth of our relationships and all that they hold, we hold, I realize as an entity our cord is so much larger than three.  We have 3, plus 3, plus 4 and even 5 and so on.  Our cord is abundant, and it would take a larger force to unravel our stands then to keep them in their intricate weave of purpose.  That, is a force to be reckoned with.

Not even Knute could chew through that cord!  He can chew through a lot (I have evidence), but not that cord.

Kacey, Matt, Igby and Knute – Thank you so much for having us come stay with you and for all that you did.  We love you guys and can’t wait for your next Florida invasion.

Dawn and Johan –  Wishing you years and years of laughter, love and nothing but wonderful memories together.

Congratulations to the new Koch’s!  (You just turned that into a naughty word, didn’t you?)

Suggested Listening:  Moth’s Wings  /  Passion Pit