Memories

Youth is, after all, just a moment, but it is the moment,

the spark, that you always carry in your heart. 

~ Raisa M. Gorbachev

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Tonight, Madison discovered some old scrapbooks and my high school senior year memory album.  Actually, we were cleaning out and had moved all of our furniture around downstairs to make way for the bar Aaron is building.  These were laying out because I'd meant to put them away in my cedar chest again. 

As she thumbed through the pages, instead of being right there with her, explaining every clipping, every photo, every quote she saw, I made my to-do list for tomorrow.  Yep, what can I say?  Mom of the year worthy!  About halfway through the memory book though, she caught my attention. 

"Mom," she said, " were you a kid in these pictures?" 

Thus began the explanation that I was in high school and how old I was when this book was made.  I sat beside her and we thumbed through photo after photo and newspaper clipping after newspaper clipping.  Wow!  It was an amazing trip down memory lane.  She was most thrilled with the fact that I was a cheerleader.  I know, hard for anyone to believe. 

It was this photo that stopped me dead in my tracks.  I've seen it before.  It's even posted on Facebook and I'm tagged in the image.  It was more the memories that flooded back to me that made me stop.  The many summers that Kerri, Kristie, Heather and I spent playing softball felt countless.  I'm pretty sure I even remember this exact day.  We were the seniors on the team yet I know this wasn't a home game (perhaps the water tower gave it away?).  It was extremely hot as were many softball games we played that summer.  I'm also fairly sure that on the backside of that fence somewhere, we also played a little steamroller (girls, I hope you remember this!).  These girls were more than my teammates, they were my very close friends.  We shared everything that summer - college plans, boy talk, strategies, injuries, and heartbreaking losses.  While I'm fairly sure that Kerri, Kristie and Heather may be cursing my name for blogging about this, I realized that perhaps I never said thank you for what those ladies shared with me that summer - true friendship! 

In those few minutes as I scanned the many photos and newspaper articles about softball games, rankings and batting averages, I realized how very lucky I am to have been blessed with people like this in my life.  I also realized that the older I get, the more I value true friendships such as these.  In that moment, I wished for my girls to know friendship like this and the camaraderie we shared that summer.  For I know that I truly went off to college that fall a better person having shared my life with these ladies. 

As I got all sentimental and started telling Maddie about the people in the photos, she got the most perplexed look on her face and in true Cyclone fashion posed a very important question. 

"Mom," she interrupted, "I just have one question.  Why are you wearing Hawkeye colors?"