We've Gathered Here Tonight...

This will, I am sure, be the first of many posts that will in some way or another allude to my MouseFest experience. And it has taken me to this point to write the first word due to two reasons. First, the trip was filled with so much activity, occasions to be with friends and make new friends that it is hard to know exactly where to start. Second, and more to the point, is how quickly real life takes over once you leave home. All this and catching a severe cold this past Wednesday hasn’t helped matters.

Plus. Well, the list of reasons could go on and on.

I do want to write something though just to begin the process of telling my MouseFest adventure. For this first retelling I wish to highlight the friendships celebrated. Yes, I know, I sound like a broken record, but it is true. And while MouseFest can mean many things to many people, it has come to mean friendship for me. In truth, that is a lot of what Disney has come to mean to me. So, this past weekend was an opportunity to be with friends; to laugh, to eat, to sing, to share, and on some occasions to experience.

For me a measure of true friendship can be found when you can spend time with a person without saying a word and feel that it is time well spent. I have known this depth of friendship on a few occasions in my life. I like to think that the friendships I have made and will continue to make will be of this caliber. While time and distance separate each of us physically, it does not separate our hearts from each other. In truth, I think the distance enhances the friendship as it causes us to work hard for something that is worth having.

Let’s be honest, it is easy to be friends at the happiest place on earth. The real test comes when we’re away from home, working at our jobs, raising our families, dreaming our dreams, and pulling together the money we need for the next trip. It is in these times that our posts, our emails, our text messages, our “writings on the wall”, and our phone calls move our friendships to a more appreciative level.

Though our times together increase the depth of our relationships, there are not many moments of silence when friends gather in The World. But, there are moments approaching silence, such as when a group of friends gathered “around the fire” on Saturday night in Epcot. We gathered to watch a show that many of us have seen more times than we can count. Yet, for me, this night was special. In those few moments It was enough to be present, to be silent and to experience the moment with your best friends.

That moment was my MouseFest. While I came away with many wonderful memories, none will compare to that.

“Good evening and welcome. We’ve gathered here tonight around the fire as people of all lands have gathered for thousands and thousands of years before us to share the light and to share the story; an amazing story as old as time itself but still being written. And though each of us has our own individual story to tell a true adventure emerges when we bring them all together as one. I hope you enjoy our story tonight, Reflections of Earth.”