Not By Chance...

Man, time is forever fleeting and I'm forever grateful for being smart enough to latch onto friendships which have covered multiple decades. The oldest friendships which I have, stretch back to the mid 80's which seem like black and whites within he back of my mind; there are probably two from that time whom I still keep in regular contact with today.

If not for the guys pictured below, I'm unsure if I would have many of the good memories which carry me from day to day. The mid 90's were such a tricky time for me and I managed to escape them relatively unharmed. There was always plenty of laughter and a few deep conversations then but nothing to what we all share now.

It was close to a year or so ago when I got the call up to the Majors; I was hitting for percentage as a city slicker but the fellas threw out an offer which I couldn't resist (camping). As spoken of in a previous piece, I didn't have much knowledge of what to expect, as I haven't been exposed to the outdoors or usage of my hands too much in the past.

I'm not a fan of long windy car rides, sketchy roads with ridiculous drop-offs, or rain while on long car rides with ridiculous drop-offs yet here we were heading to either the wilderness or paradise. To be honest if I were asked to meet these dudes up at the site, I would have messaged them a few days later and told them I got caught up at home and couldn't make it after all.

For three days we camped laughed, sang, hiked, ate, played card games, drank, played whiffleball, threw frisbees, but most importantly talked about life and where we were within it all. It was powerful to sit on a shore, at night, looking up at one billion stars which were looking down on us. If not for true friendships where would any of us land?

In my mind, nothing happens by chance, if we do it correctly, the bonds, true bonds which we've formed should last a lifetime, well, with the exception of some baggage of course.

I've learned that it's okay to be that annoying friend who always totes their camera along with them; I figured there would be a photo op at some point and man, what a backdrop.

Nothing happens by chance...