Great Company

(Chattanooga) I don’t know when I have enjoyed dinner as much as I did tonight. And it was not just because of the food although the food was great.

It was definitely the company.


I’ve known Jill since she was a little girl. I’ve known her husband David about 18 years. Jill is my first cousin (by marriage) but about 14 years younger than me. We spent a lot of time with her and her family when she was growing up. But I have seen her only a few times in the last 15 years or so. But by golly I saw David and Jill tonight. And we had way too much fun.

When I think of Jill I think of a little girl because those are the days I remember the most. But I figured out really quick tonight that she is no longer a young girl. She is a gorgeous lady with a bubbling personality who has a wonderful husband of 17 years. And they have a house full of children…. four to be exact. And she and her husband are doing a wonderful job raising their children. Their oldest will graduate from high school this year. Their youngest is 6. Things are busy at the Hopkins’ house these days.

I can tell you we had no trouble drumming up a conversation. We talked about our kids and we talked about a lot of memories we share from days gone by. We talked about the churches we attend and we even talked about my mother in law. We covered it all. And we also laughed a lot.

The interesting thing is we got together because of this blog. Jill read here this morning that I was in Chattanooga and since they live about 20 miles from here she sent me an email to meet them for dinner. I jumped at the chance. I learned today that blogs are for more than just blogging.

But when I left the restaurant tonight I was bothered. I was bothered because I was wondering why in the heck we haven’t stayed in closer touch with these folks we love so much and with which we have so much in common. And I was bothered because our kids don’t even know each other. I was thinking if we are too busy to spend time with the people we love the most then we are too doggoned busy. We have good excuses. We all have been busy raising kids and doing life and I understand that.

But I also understand that life is short and we all have people in our lives with which we should be spending more time. And the clock is ticking. And in this case, the lack of contact is about to change.

In fact I’ll just go ahead and give you all a great suggestion. Don't wait until someone you care about reads your blog to find out you are in town. Pick up the phone and call somebody you haven’t seen in a while who means a lot to you. Do whatever it takes to make time to get together with them. You will be glad you did.

Folks like that make great company.