Embarrassment of Riches

Spring is without a doubt my favourite time of year. It’s hopeful. It smells wonderful as the grass is cut for the first time, the flowers start to bloom and the pavement is wet from warmer rains. Spring is an abundant feeling kind of season.

Each morning on our walk, I make sure to turn down this particular street in my neighbourhood I think of as the magnolia road. For the past weeks I’ve been watching the buds on this gigantic magnolia tree plump up. Aided by the warm sunshine we had this weekend they exploded into beautiful pink and white blossoms. I knew it would be spectacular in full bloom and after a long wait through the year, the tree didn’t disappoint. Soon the blooms will fall off and this old gnarly tree will spend the rest of the warm season gracefully green. I imagine it resting after all its effort to produce such splendor. I have read somewhere that the bark of the magnolia is said to have anti-anxiety properties. From my perspective, this feels true. Taking in the extraordinary beauty of this tree certainly has a calming effect on me.

This past weekend, my friend Niamh cooked up a wonderful surprise for my sister and me. An invitation for a girl’s night out of gossipy pints was really a ruse to get us together to welcome our friend GearÓid, in town visiting from Ireland. Sitting in the pub, catching up on the news from Clare, it was as if we’d just gabbed last week. It has been almost two years since I’d seen my traveling pal and within seconds we fell back into our normal banter. Quickly falling into reminiscences of trips taken together, gaffes, old jokes and family stories we happily gabbed anticipating a few good sessions in the coming week as a preview for our trip to Ireland in June. It was a wonderful evening and technically speaking, an early morning too.

There are places in this world where I am comfortable, but none more so than in the company of my family and friends. Blessed beyond measure with friends I have known for many years, I have always taken a more the merrier approach to hanging out with my friends. I love that my closest buds layer in together with my siblings and that I have far away pals whom I can pick up with as easily as my oldest friends whom I see weekly for brunch or a pint. A couch on Sherwood or Battenburg, the kitchen on Postridge, our high top table at McFlys or the Starbucks on Bayview all provide their own version of contentment and security. I get how lucky I am and I’m grateful for these people who love me. They share my life and enrich it like the magnolia does my morning walks. My friends are each unique and special to me, whether a new bud, a wonderful surprise that comes out to play every year or strong beautiful branches who’s presence supports and who’s beauty inspires me.

I’ve always been the kind of person who makes friends easily wherever I go. I think this is so because I have been lucky enough to have these wonderful people in my life already. So to those far away and those down the street, here is my favourite friendship song.