bare necessities

Today I hung out with Lu for the afternoon. We mostly just lazed by the pool, soaking up some vitamin D while we talked and talked and talked. Eventually we went to Rota Springs, where we grabbed some (as always) delicious ice cream and talked and talked. (I also managed to run into one of the tent poles on our way back to the car. My nose smacked right into the metal and it felt like it broke, but I think it is just bruised. I spent a good hour icing it so hopefully it won't be too purple tomorrow.) We spent the remainder of the day watching "Cash Cab" but also talking some more, and then we went to pick up dinner and we talked and talked there too.

This is not an unusual way for us to spend a day together. Quite honestly, this is normal, not just for me and Laura, but for all of our other friends, too. I will go see a movie with Katie but then end up back at her house gabbing for two hours straight about anything and everything. Leanne and I have racked up countless hours of conversation in much the same manner. Even group get-togethers follow the same general format. We congregate, we eat a bit, maybe we play a board game, but we always, always end up talking. Just talking.

And I love it. I love that we have the ability to not need to do anything when we are together. Talking is not only enough, it is more than enough. Maybe some people find this style of socialization lazy or doldrum. I beg to differ. I do plenty of fun and exciting things with my friends. But always, always there is that element of conversation that I so look forward to. Without exception, I leave any and every get-together feeling calm and happy and closer with my friends than I was before. I am so lucky to be so unequivocally content with such simpleness. I am lucky that, while I am with my friends, I do not feel as if I need to do more than talk or be more than I am.

Other facets of my life are much less elementary, but to have at the very least this one, beautifully uncomplicated thing is a gift I will never take for granted.