Destiny vs Musical Chairs

I talked to Uncle Bob yesterday. I’ve been "out of pocket" for a few weeks and I wanted to check in and see if he was doing okay. He was in great spirits and told me about running into an old friend of his in a local café."I haven’t known Delbert all my life," Bob said. "Just since 1933."Bob laughed at his little joke, realizing that for most of us seventy-five years is more than a lifetime.He talked about Delbert a bit, remembering some of the things they did as kids, including being pallbearers at the funeral of one of their schoolmates who drown while swimming in a water tower by the railroad tracks."I never would have picked Delbert as a friend," Bob told me. "But when you’re a kid and somebody moves in down the street, you really don’t have much choice."I thought about that. And I thought about my friends. I’m fortunate to have a lot. Some that I’ve known for many years. Others that I’ve acquired more recently.A group of my girlfriends and I got together for a dinner just last week. A decade ago we came together as part of a Bible study for Special Needs Moms. By the way, for those who aren’t into the lingo, Special Needs Moms aren’t moms who need something special (as all mom’s do) rather we’re the mothers of kids with special needs. In our group the kids are all mentally handicapped, have Down’s Syndrome or are on the Autistic Spectrum.Though we come from very diverse religious backgrounds, Catholics, Protestants and Jews, we felt the need to interact with each other. We’ve struggled with trying to understand why God made our children the way he did. We’ve worked on finding peace within the lives we’ve been given. And we’ve tried to figure out how to be the best parents that we can be.You can probably imagine over the years all the things we’ve been through. The highs and lows of any life are dramatic. A handicapped person in the family often makes the swings even greater and more frequent. Each of us has had times when we needed a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen as we’ve vented frustrations. We’ve been good for each other.However, now that I think about these women, I realize that like Uncle Bob and Delbert, I probably would not have chosen these women to be my friends. Truth is, I never would have discovered these people had not a unique set of circumstances thrown us together.My sister once described life as a game of Musical Chairs. You never know where you’re going to be or who you’re going to be next to, when the music stops. I feel very lucky that in this particular interim in my life, the music has brought me here.