Just back from a week in New York City. I do love it there! My trip this time was like an episode straight out of "This is Your Life." I saw and connected with old friends from as early as kindergarten; friends from junior high school; friends from high school; friends from college; friends from my time living in Washington, DC; friends from my early San Francisco days; friends from the more recent San Francisco days...I even saw people I am about to go to school with - friends from the future, you may say. It was an awesome time - great laughs, great food, great yoga...in the greatest city in the world.

Most of the time, when I take a vacation or head out of town for any reason, it usually offers opportunities for reflection and self understanding, and this trip was no different. I think my biggest understanding after this trip is that there is nothing like old friends. Don't get me wrong, new friends are great...but it's like the song says, "Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." Once in a while I definitely make new friends that automatically feel like old friends, for whatever reason. And eventually, new friends can become old friends, over time of course. But there is something to be said for friendships that develop when we are young and vulnerable and for those friendships to evolve and for connection to continue into adulthood. This trip offered me a demonstration of the power of old friends - from the Howard Beach kids (none of whom I am in regular touch with but some of whom I could definitely see becoming adult friends with) to the Humanities crew (a group of friends that allow me to laugh my ass off no matter what paths our lives take and no matter how many years pass between our seeing each other) to the BU buds to the political/DC dudes to the early SF crew.

I guess this trip also taught me that newer friendships, no matter how deep they may feel, are more fragile than the older ones. It makes sense...by definition they haven't withstood the tests of time. But it's funny how now, at age 31, my "newer" friendships seem less able to weather the storms than the older friendships, which weathered storms during times when, as younger people, we were more vulnerable and less worldly. Maybe that's the lesson of this...that vulnerability is the path to deep connection. Hm...I knew that but...I guess this is another way to reinforce that.