We arrived at Logan Airport at 6:30 in the evening after an 18 hour day of flying. We were tired and bleary-eyed, but also excited. We got through immigration in record time and then waited with other weary travelers for our luggage.
Four pieces later we were on our way to pick up a rental car.
The road to our friends home never felt so long. It had been too long and now we were almost there.
We turned the corner onto Essex Street in Hamilton and drove up the dark road. We could not see the beginning signs of spring, even though we knew they were there. We also knew that just ahead was the home of a couple who have walked through life with us for many years.
A few minutes later we had arrived. There in front of us was an unassuming Cape Cod style house with a yellow garage. This was the house where a friendship had flourished for many years. A house that had hosted more hours of talk and laughter than we could possibly count. This house spelled comfort in some of my darkest days and provided refuge from many a New England snow storm.
But what is a house without the people who make it a home? Our friends have stayed as we have gone. They have continually offered shelter and friendship to our wandering feet. They are the roots to our wings and the solid wisdom to our sometimes too restless souls.
They are our stayers and I could not love them more.
The goers need the stayers. The travelers need the port. The ones who pack up and leave for far off places desperately need the ones who wait for them, encourage them, love them, and welcome them back. This couple does that for us and I am so grateful. They have been in our lives for 23 years and they will continue to be our people until our lives on this earth are over. If you are a traveler, find your people and never, ever forget how precious they are.
If you are a goer, find a stayer. If you are a stayer, find a goer. We need each other more than we know.
Someday I will be a stayer, and I will remember how much the goers need me.
Marilyn R. Gardner 
Love this Marilyn. We have become ‘the stayers’ and have had many dear ones come through this past mo. with two more due on Sunday who are ‘passing’ through. Thankful we can be ‘goers’ still and ‘stayers’. We’re here for ‘You both.’ Whenever the road leads you here.
Love and Hugs,
karen kay and fred
On Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 6:08 AM Marilyn R. Gardner wrote:
> Marilyn posted: ” We arrived at Logan Airport at 6:30 in the evening after > a 18 hour day of flying. We were tired and bleary-eyed, but also excited. > We got through immigration in record time and then waited with other weary > travelers for our luggage. Four pieces later w” >
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Sorry I was so grumpy when you were here. :-/ It really was nice to see you guys! Thank you for taking thr initiative to say “hi”. :-) Christ is risen!
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I understand. In my life, I am both goer and stayer. My family tends to fling itself all over the world: I was raised in Ethiopia, my daughter went to Japan with her military husband; my son has been in Scotland this year for school; my husband takes me and runs off to Australia for a month or so every couple of years. We are a restless family, but one or the other of us is always staying in place while the others go. Yes, our circle of stayers is small, but so, so precious.
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This is so very lovely. I *might* have cried a bit as I reflected on how small the circle of those who love us the deepest can sometimes seem so small. But yes, being / finding a stayer / goer feels more important than ever. Thank you for this.
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PS: sorry for the typo, “I was…”
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I were the first “goer” in my family. Raising our children in Pakistan has made them all goers. I think of my Mom who lived her whole life in the same small town. She was a true stayer and we loved knowing that she would be there when we returned. That could have been my life but for the fact that God had other plans for me and now for my children. Yes, Marilyn, for us who live a pilgrim life, we so need our special people who have stayed and encouraged and loved us through our pilgrimage. So now I am content to be a stayer, thankful for the ways God is using my children through their goings. Thanks for including me in your travels these 2 weeks! It’s been so great to have this time.
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You are family in the truest sense of the word!
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This is SO SO very true!!!!!!!! I love the way you say it!
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