Day 9: The Music of Friendship

Late yesterday turned in to early today and I found myself standing on a sidewalk in downtown Oklahoma City with two of my oldest and dearest friends and a new, wonderfully happy friend too.  It was a tricky moment at the end of a lovely evening.

The four of us had had a full evening full of chatter, music and fun.  We started with dinner at Sage and progressed to a Concert downtown.  We laughed, took pictures,  (which maybe you'll see if they will share them with me...), ran into another old friend and took our seats on the floor for the Michael Buble show.  It began with a surprisingly wonderful group called Naturally 7.  They are so talented and I really enjoyed their performance.

 I was surprisingly delighted by the main act as well.  He was a great host of the evening and the focus was really on the music rather than big sets or costumes, which have prevailed at other recent shows.  He walked out into the audience and was about six seats away from me for awhile.  It was a great show with a particularly wonderful encore.

Heading back from this lovely experience we took in the Christmas lights on Automobile Alley.  As my new friend drove back to Tracie's car there were sudden shouts, squeals of breaks and for one of the only times in my life the thud, crunch and shatter of cars colliding at slow speed.  There was a moment of silence then tentative inquiries to see if Sarah, sitting closest to the impact was OK.  We were truly blessed in that everyone was fine.  Sarah was covered in glass but otherwise mostly OK.  Tracie was shaken a bit too, but really we are all fine if shaken or sore in spots.  We stood with our new friend in the cold and reassured her that we were fine; that things were OK; that we loved her.  We watched as the police came, talked, questioned and recreated.  Things seem to move slowly in the cold night when nothing is really happening after a big moment.

We parted and went our separate ways just after this day began.  I went home thankful for a wonderful evening, beautiful music by talented musicians, and thankful that we were all ok.  Moreover, I was thankful for these lovely ladies.  In particular, Tracie and Sarah and our shared story. We have been through a lot, individually and together over the last decades.  Today's holiday gift was both music and friendship and I am so glad for both.