I just had two lovely conversations with my long-term friends. First, I was pleased to have an_______meeting with Bryan. He’s CEO of a government agency and one of the first people I _____when I moved to Medicine Hat. I_______to work that morning eighteen years ago and he quickly began introducing me to other employees. His_______was appreciated and we began a close friendship right then as he gave me a comfortable______in my new workplace.     Over the next few years Bryan would______me at the office. There were many times when we ______together. We didn’t see each other very_______after I moved on with other career paths. Late this afternoon, we unexpectedly met at a store and stood in the cold beside our________in the parking lot for an hour. We ______memories and inspired each other with tales of our experiences.

One day I saw the light on my phone flashing and then saw the _____message left for me by another_______Chris, who has been in my life since 1973. He’s returned to retire and ______in his hometown of Whitewood, where we first met. _______not having lived in the same town or city since then, we’ve held each other in our ______for the past four decades. Even when we’re all______and don’t make contact with each other for months, it always feels like time hasn’t passed since our last______. We understand and care about each other and that’s all that______ .

Most dictionaries________a friend is someone you “know, like and trust”. I’m grateful that many of my friendships go well _______that.

After a whole week of rain we finally had a comfortable, beautiful summer day outside. My family and I were driving to a nearby town when my daughter _________ a yard sale. Then, a few miles down the road, we saw another, and another, and another, We saw tables full of knickknacks. We saw plates, glasses, and silverware. _________, we saw lots of smiling people talking, laughing, sitting, and standing in the sunshine.

Seeing all of this brought back _________ of my childhood. Most of the clothes in my closet back then came from _________. My mom was a talented yard sale-shopper. When I was little, she would drag me along with her. I used to _________ going to them, until one special day when I saw that they also sold old _________. After that, I always browsed through the books until it was time to _________. Sometimes mom would _________ me one too. Soon, a large part of my home library came from yard sale books. For me, these books were more _________ than their first editions.

Why do we have yard sales? It certainly isn’t for the ____________. For all the time and ____________ people put into them, they would hardly make minimum wage from the sales. I think, rather, it is yard sales that ____________ us together. We ____________ our old things and we buy “new” old things. We talk and ____________ old friends and new neighbors. We get a ____________ to give and share. We ____________ through kindness and love among all the old stuff. It’s all about ____________, both in goods and between people.

I think yard sales teach us something about ____________ too. We can’t really ____________ anything here, after all; all we get is ____________ possession of our stuff, then it comes time for us to let it go and pass it on.