“Life Changes”

“Life Changes”

(That Stand the Test of Time)

By Glenn Peppers                           June 26, 2017 4:50am           

A friend of mine's dad was sitting on the front porch one hot summer night, back in the day, laughing at us kids goofing around kung fu kicking each other, and just being kids. He told us that "One day, you all might not be around each other, or see each other as much when you guys grow older!" 

We asked him why! And he said "Its because people change! Life changes, and life's circumstances begin to move people in different directions!"

My Friend's dad said, "When you're just getting outta high school, you may see most of your friends a lot, living in the same town. Bopping around here and there in the neighborhood, at the corner store, or at the movies, and at parties, etc! 

Then when you're 25 years old or so. Some of you may get married, some will go off to the military!" Others will get run over by a car, or get a job working in the factory, while some of your other friends will play professional football, or go to school to be a doctor! 

Then when you're 45 years old or so, you'll find that a lot of your friends will have moved out of town. Certainly out of the old neighborhood! A lot of people you grew up with, and came along with, you'll lose track of completely! 

Facebook has been a big reconnection link for many of us Baby Boomers! Putting a great lot of older people back in touch with folks we might not have ever seen again in this lifetime! 

I found that as I got older, like a lot of you. I've experienced some of the friends and people that I went to school with have passed on, become crippled and disabled; while others in time have revealed themselves to be Gay, or have switched over to being Muslims, or shown themselves to be Mentally ill! 

While there will always be that one friend who'll appear to be the same old person they were coming along in life when you were kids playing in the mud. 

No matter how many years its been since you've seen them! As life moves along with you and them in it, the surprises are worth it alone!

My friend's wise dad told us that "By the time we reached 55-60 plus years. We'll barely see any of the people we came along with in your younger years! Many of them will have passed on. Or moved out of state!" 

I've found that after almost a lifetime of close and or distant friendships. Some friendships survivor battles will reveal people who were and are alcoholics, cancer survivors and even people who have been suffering with depression! 

Sometimes we may be dealing with a drug habit that we've been fighting since our teen years!" And if this be the case, So What!... That's LIFE People! Things happen! No matter who They are. Good bad or indifferent; They'll still always be my friend! No Matter What!

As I've grown older. I've found a great lot of what my friend's dad said to us that hot summer evening to be true! 

Now in my older years, I have only a handful of friends that I grew up with, knowing them from grade school that I talk to. 

Then there are my life-long friends with whom I still associate with! We may not see each other everyday, but we still  know each other as people from a soul-core perspective! We know where each other's head is at!

As people grounded in wisdom, humor and life, no matter how far we get separated, we always seem to pick up where we left off from the last time we saw or talked to one another! 

God blessed me with friends who know me well enough, to understand my need and want to sometimes disappear, and go off to my quiet space, within myself from time to time!  

I found that by the time you reach 60 years old, you may be in touch with possibly only 3.1 of those people on a regular basis that you grew up with. 

To this day, I still know and love and keep in touch with friends whom I've played in bands with. People I've DJ'ed with, and hung out at parties with! People I've studied the martial arts with, and gone to concerts with! And people I've sat and cried with! 

I still have those friend's I've gone to amusement parks with, and witnessed getting married and having children! And all the while, throughout the years, never losing touch with each other for very long, as we all came along with an Unspoken Old School--Code of Honor! "Friends for Life!" 

Friends are just that! FRIENDS! You don't have to say it out loud! It just shows! It's something that just happens! 

Friends at the movies clowning

Friend's listen to music together! Friend's act a fool and clown in the movie theater on a Saturday afternoon! Friend's will tell you when your pants are flooding way up high, or talk about your old brown ass, out of style tennis shoes in a way that will crack you up!

Friend's chill at home, eating junk food, watching horror movies, or soul train, and sitcom comedies on TV while eating burnt popcorn. 

Then there are those times when friends'll just they sit quietly with you, designing and/or building and making things by hand, together! 

Some people make friends, and along the way discover that God has given the both of you an extended family in the process of living life! 

When you're young, and even many times when you're older. there'll be no need for you to go looking for good friends. 

Life and God will weed out the people around you who really don't care for you; leaving only those frank and honest enough to bust you upside your head with a water balloon. Laugh about it, and take off running! Now that's friendship!  

You'd be surprised at the people you knew growing up who still live in the same neighborhood you both grew up in! Actually that's a good thing!... Its grounding! 

Yet there are people who'll sometimes see you quite often when you go back and visit your old neighborhood, who'll rarely speak to you, for whatever reasons! 

You'll find as you get older, past your middle years, that old girlfriends (and boy friends) who once dumped you back in the day will look all worn out and un-pretty! 

You'll also find that you'll be totally grateful for that teenage Unrequited Crush you had on that girl you thought was so fine! 

You'll be glad that your clamoring heart, and dissed love had remained unrequited once you've seen how "he or she" turned out in their middle years......... With all them darn loud ass, ill mannered grand babies!

I feel that God gives us friends and confidants along the way in life, because as human beings, we need companionship! In our youth, we need peer interaction as children and teenagers, and even as young adults! In other words, As we grow, "We need a CREW!" 

Coming along, all of us needed social interaction as young adults to learn how to get along with all kinds of people! How to work with people, etc! 

But as life moves its mortal timeline along with us, we begin to change! Some of us marry, some of us become hermits. And some of us spend our lives swinging from one relationship to the next. Remember, Life is Our's to Choose! 

As we get older, our immediate friends list tends to become smaller and smaller! It's nothing personal! It's mostly drudged out of availability, time factors! We're not kids anymore! There's work to be done, meetings to attend! You have family; and again, life's many personal changes will come into play! 

As an adult sharing a life, with a spouse or partner. You've began to mold that life for yourself, along with your significant other and your children! 

One thing I have to say, and it is this!..... Remember, if you live long enough. You will be older in life a lot longer than you will be a young person, physically and mentally in this life! 

I've found that one of the keys to living a happier life in our golden years is to learn how to enjoy one's self, every minute of the day! A big ingredient to this formula is laughter! Laughter is Key!

Laughter is Medicine! 

Never be ashamed to be silly; or to be a big kid at heart! Getting older means you have to learn how to work harder at playing harder! You have to work harder at feeling good! And I know I have to work hard as heck to look sharp and stay halfway youthful in appearance, in my AARP years! 

Hey, if something makes you look and feel younger, and makes you feel good, and doesn't hurt anybody including yourself. I say, DO IT! 

Still the fact of our not needing a whole slew of people surrounding us as friends as we get on in years proves one thing. And that is, as surly as you've entered this world alone as an infant. When we leave this world in our twilight years, we will surly exit it the same way in which we all arrived! 
                                            
So learn to enjoy the best friend you'll ever have in this whole wide world today! And that best friend is YOU!

Glenn Peppers