337. Go After a Friend
Writiing about Paul and Thom yesterday reminds me of one of the things I learned in knowing them. I had known Paul even before he went to be pastor at Washington Square United Methodist Church in Greenwich Village. But I didn’t know him well. I had seen him at an Organists Guild meeting.
And then some years later I was at a writer’s conference for children’s curriculum and he was a special resource person one evening to talk with us about creative worship. I remembered him and thought as he talked that we were even more on the same wave-length than before. We spoke briefly and then he left. I finished out the conference and mulled over this person and our connection.
I had gone to several clown, mime, dance and puppet conferences and was asked by the Order of St. Luke’s to do a program on clowning for them. I suggested to them that I would like to do it with Paul Abels and it would become a program on creative worship, including clowning. They said fine!
I called Paul and asked if he would do it with me but before I hung up told him that I thought we had the possibility of a friendship between us and that I would like us to work on that. I invited him to spend two nights, so that we could get the program together but that we could also spend some talking together and figuring out where this friendship could go. He said yes to it all and it began!
I learned that sometimes I can’t just sit around and wait for a friendship to happen. Sometimes I have to go after it and put some energy into it. Through Paul, I met Thom, and the three of us had a grand friendship until Paul’s death. And Thom and I continue.
My life is richer because of the friends I have gone after!
