A Pathway of Friendship

I recently stopped by the Zuck Homestead to see Davey and pick up a cantaloupe. After knocking on the front and back doors and receiving no answer I thought I’d walk down to the house that was once our home to see if Davey and Sally were there. I knew they were getting the vacant house ready to rent and thought they might be there finishing their work.

The path between the houses was as familiar to me as the furniture in our home, and in retracing my steps from the vacant house back to their home (they were not at the house), where my car was parked, I thought about the many times we traversed that path from one house to another during our sojourn on the Zuck Homestead – Davey and Sally visiting us and us visiting Davey and Sally. I am especially fond of recollecting the winter evenings we sat together in front of a fire and talked and read to one another and told stories and shared life experiences. Those were holy evenings spent in sacred friendship.

The pathways of friendship are sacred, and the more well-worn the more sacred they are – sacramental indeed, precious…more to be desired than any material wealth the age can offer. I think I should like a shovel full of that dirt to be placed on my coffin when I am laid to rest.