"Life is not like a river but like a tree."

"We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a river but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good."  - C. S. Lewis

Interesting thought no? I've been thinking about his phrase of life being more like a tree than a river, but not in the religious good and evil sense. The other night I helped a friend prepare things for her wedding reception. I haven't seen her in a while and it was good to catch up but it seems that all old friends can catch up on is what everyone else is up to. I'm afraid I find myself slipping into those conversations more then I like but it's hard when you haven't seen someone for a long while. Things aren't as natural as they used to be. It's like you have to go through a polite greeting/get to know you again before you can delve. But then the delving isn't must deeper then the level of the kiddie pools. Life is like a tree. You all branch off in your own direction, move into your own life. You become more distant from each other, spreading into different regions, growing next to new branches. Then those branch off and you continue down your course in life. How many people from my high school do I still keep in touch with? There's a handful but everyone else is sporadic. How many people do I keep in touch with from college? I'm trying harder to stay with them, (let's be honest I was done with high school long before I graduated.) they're the more recent ones in my life. I seem to have difficulties with loosing touch with people but also with not caring about loosing touch. What a sad dilemma.
But through all these changes, I'm always closest with my family. That's more important then my friends I think. I know that people are put into my life, and I hope that I'm utilizing what they're teaching me, but my family is here to stay.