Shared Experience

I've recently had a couple of Mini Breaks in London, seeing shows & exhibitions. The first time was with a long standing friend, the second with my daughter. Both times the experience was all the more pleasurable because it was shared & discussed with someone with whom I have a lot in common & known a long time.

The arts stimulate imagination & thought. They make us realise the heights of creativity & skill that human beings can attain. Each one of us has a different perception & understanding of what we have seen & that is sharpened & brought into focus by sharing the experience with someone else. We are the richer through another persons perceptions.

I could go to similar things by myself, & would undoubtedly enjoy the experience & probably strike up a conversation with someone else. But there is something special about people with whom one has spent a lot of time & as a result with whom there is a close bond. There is an easy discourse & reference to previous things seen & experienced which amplifies the new. Such companions are to be treasured.

As I age I realise how important these friends are. Some are already, sadly, lost along the way. Some I lost because of misunderstandings, some because of illness & death. In my younger days I possibly did not work hard enough at retaining them because of work & family commitments. But all were, at some point, important in my life.

I do now realise that nothing is as important as people one can laugh & cry with & be truly oneself.