I knew you when....

I have this theory, it isn't mine exactly but I believe it. I believe that we meet people in this life, that we knew before.
I am sure we didn't just 'happen' that we come from somewhere, that we were made just the way the Lord wants us to be, we come here to fulfill a purpose and then we go on to continue who were are, for eternity.
I am sure that as we travel through this life, we come across people we already know.
For me, I meet people and I have one of 3 reactions, I love them, I recoil from them or I look at them and tell myself that this one, well, we'll see, nothing there that makes me jump back and run the other way but no spark, nothing to make me feel this is someone I will love. ( does this all sound like it's all about ME? Oh good, because it is.)
I have super friends, real honest to goodness friends and usually, I love my friends for always.
Sometimes I meet someone who seems lovely and yet, something doesn't gel, even though I can't put my finger on a reason, it doesn't get past the chit chat phase. That's fine because we can't be friends with everyone we meet, how sickly would that be?
Then, there are those times when you see someone, you bump into them and every sense is heightened, I love that, I love that those moments are not confined to age or gender, sometimes you can meet someone, quite by chance and you know that somehow you have always known that person, that this is just a reunion of sorts.
I did that today.
For a few years I have been online friends with someone, on a message board for mormon mums, I left that board forever ago but kept in touch with Karen, we have met up before on a crazy thanksgiving at our house and today I drove down to see her again before she moves from Cornwall, back to America, from whence she came. Her husband is in the US military and they are moving back to the USA, they had a couple of years in Italy and a couple more in England.
I was so glad to be able to see Karen and her family again, she has 3 delicious children, Natalie, Robbie and Clayton. I met Natalie and Robbie before on that busy thanksgiving day, both so little and Clayton is a teeny weeny boy, a new one that I hadn't met before ( oh tiny boys, is there anything nicer? I think not) Anyway, I didn't get lost, not really, I went the scenic route but I didn't get lost and I loved seeing the old familiar roads of Cornwall and some new ones too, the scenery and countryside is out of this world, truly breathtaking....









I stopped on the way home and took those pictures, I stood in one spot and took them, just look at how glorious that is. When I see countryside like this I know God exists, mistakes or explosions don't make beauty like this.
Anyway, I arrived and waiting in the tiny narrow lane was Karen and Natalie and Robbie. I got out of the car and Natalie came right over, she grabbed my hand and I felt that feeling.
This little girl has always been my friend.
We sat and chatted for a while and she drew me pictures and wrote me notes, the whole time I was thinking how happy I was to be near her, then she put down her notepad and she snuggled right into me, you know what you just have that urge to squeeze the breath out of someone when you see them after a long time? She did that and I squeezed her right back.
Then, she did something that was so touching it almost brought tears to my eyes, she got hold of my shirt, stuffed her face into it and she breathed in really deeply. Then she just looked at me and smiled.
I almost asked her if I was stinky but her little face showed me that I wasn't. ( and when I got in the car I sniffed right where she had and it smelled rather lovely of fabric softener and fresh air)
What a precious thing it is to feel that with someone, especially a little person because they are just so open.
There have been many times when I am so happy to see someone that I want to grab them and just breathe them in, take great big lungs full of their smell, squeeze the breath out of them and just have them know that I love them, without saying a word. Old age stops me doing that, which is a shame, after today I might just go with it because I feel like I won the lottery today.
The moment was over in a flash but will stay in my heart forever and I am sure that even when Natalie is old and married, when she is a mother and can barely remember living in England, I will still be her friend.
I asked her, after she sang me the sweetest song, on the way to school, if when she came home from school and I wasn't there, if she would sing that again and have her mommy put the video on the computer for me so I can watch it again and again and she said " Yes, she'll put it on Face Book because when you put things in the computer they stay there and you can look at them again and again, even when I am in America you can still see me if I am in your computer can't you?"
That's what I love about the computer, I get so many great things from my computer, a husband, great friends and all manner of treasures. I love that distance dissolves, it's so easy to forget there is an ocean between us as we chat and laugh as is we are in the same room.
I so love my friends, life is so much more colourful, more valuable when you have friends to share it with.
I love that true friendship is so effortless, nothing is hard work, it is entirely possible to go days, weeks even years sometimes without seeing or speaking to someone and then, when the chance arises, it's as though you were never apart.
I am so grateful for friends who understand me, who know without being told how I am, who take the time to tell me I matter. I am even more grateful for friends who don't need to tell me I matter to them because I already know. I know because I am pretty sure I knew them before, way back when.