Keep those bridges flame retardant.

And now for something completely different.

I've made it a life choice to not burn to many bridges along my path in life. This has had its benefits along the way as I've stumbled across old friends an relationships. Today I took in my pretty new teacher mobile to have a little Prius pampering. The only toyota dealership in town just happens to employee and old flame of mine. This isn't a "we dated in high school and he bought me a happy meal" flame. It's more like 3 years of my life of growing up, living together, and learning the hard knocks of life until we drifted and crumbled away. The split was painful and hard but over the years we managed to take what had been a big part of our lives and build a friendship. Anyways, when I arrived to pick up my precious pile of Prius he was in the lobby finishing up with a customer. He saw me, asked how I was enjoying the car, an bantered back and forth about how my old car was a coffin on wheels and breaking off piece by piece. I waved my goodbye and was headed out the door when he stopped me. He quickly asked the associates in the lobby to check and make sure my new (but used) car was up to date on its recalls. Everything was seen about and I headed on my way. Driving home it hit me how grateful I was to have good people around me. Even though there were many breaks and cracks in the history of our friendship and he could have found 100 reasons to hate me just because, he took the time to make sure I was in a good place with a good car. It's something so simple but says so much about the person I want to be and the great person he always has been.

Be aware of the people you let go in life. Burning bridges leaves you with nothing but an empty feeling and no way to go back to the wonderful friends you have made along the way.