26 april
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 07:28AM 
i want to tell you about the art. really, i do. there was so much of it, so many varied works - different media, different styles - all of it on small pieces of paper tacked to the walls with magnets. i want to tell you how lovely it looked, beautifully worn boards lining the walls covered with little paintings and tiny magnets. i want to tell you all about it, but first i have to talk about the people.
when i'm asked how i met the owners of the eyebuzz gallery in tarrytown, ny, i find it hard to answer. do i simply say, "we met online?" or, "through my blog?" do i explain that i'm lucky enough to have an online community of friends who are artists and artists who are friends? i never know. so i say they are my friends.
and saturday evening was all about friends.
when i walked into the gallery and introduced myself to tim, and when tara walked in a bit later - it was as though i had always known them. when amisha called to say her train had arrived and when i walked to the corner to meet her, i was giddy at meeting an old friend. when amy walked into the gallery with her boys and we recognized each other instantly, i was overcome by the connections we share. when i introduced amy and amisha and realized suddenly the things they share in common, i had goosebumps. we talked - all of us - we talked and talked on saturday night - about daughters and nepal and paintings and law school and cameras and camera straps and scarves and film and sewing and pizza and family and on and on and on.
two of my childhood friends joined us at the opening celebration and later at dinner - and i felt like i was in a little bubble of friendship and love and history and possibility. i know it sounds silly and corny, but as i sat there at a dinner table with friends who have known me since i was 14 and friends i've only just met face to face, i kept thinking about the song: "one is silver and the other is gold." it's corny, but it's true.
when all was said and done - when we had talked and talked and eaten and talked and hugged and taken photos and laughed, and after i had said goodbye to my old friends and we had taken amisha to the train and i said goodbye to tara and tim and i was back in my car on the way out of town - when all was said and done i felt keenly aware of how we hadn't even begun to scratch the surface. of how we covered so much and there is still so much left. all the way home i was thinking about friends.
about the friends i've known forever. the people who know me from before i was me. the people for whom it doesn't matter, really, who or where or what i am because we share a childhood of sorts, we share history. we hardly need to fill in the blanks, and we will always be a part of each other's stories in one way or another. they are a part of me.
and i thought about my new friends. about how we know each other in a particular way that is dear and intimate, and yet i do not know where tara went to college. or what is amisha's favorite color. it's an unusual thing we have - a way of knowing each other that is solely of this time. a way of knowing each other as the people we are today without all of the layers of life - the good and the bad - that fill in the shadows of ourselves. a way of knowing each other that is so full of possibility.
am i rambling? it feels to me like rambling in a way, but i prefer to think of it like this. i am so full from this weekend - so full of friendship - that i am spilling over with possibility and reflection. like the cup, filled to the brim and then filled some more. i am that cup today, full to overflowing. the rest will have to wait.
Reader Comments (23)
But that doesn't mean I don't want us to sit down over a glass of wine. :)
...since before i was me...i love that - thank you for putting it in my thoughts today.
wish i could have come along.hugs.
Thanks for sharing,A. (Stockholm, Sweden)
xoox,-maria