Friends

The past few days have been all about friends for me. I don't know if our friends define us but they certainly enrich our lives.It started the other day, one of my closest, dearest friends called me. She wanted to chat. We live only 100 or so miles from one another but we hardly get the chance to see one another. She has a newborn baby and owns a home with her husband. I work a full-time job and I am putting a lot of energy into my freelance writing. Anyhow in addition to wanting to just talk, she wanted to tell me how much our friendship meant to her. It is not often that people get raw with one another like this. I make an effort to talk about my feelings and express myself to my loved ones but sometimes it catches us off guard. After we got off the phone I was overwhelmed by love. I was so thankful to have this friend and to have received that phone call.That same night another friend who I have known since I was a child sent me a message: "am I ever going to see you?"I hadn't seen her in ages. We would make plans and cancel, life would get in the way, travel, sick family members, etc. She said, "I have the next three nights available. I'm taking you to dinner, my treat."Luckily, I had the following night (Friday) free. She told me when and where to be and she made a reservation. We sat down and didn't stop talking for three hours. But it was like no time had passed. She told stories about her life and of course I knew all of the characters. And same for me with her. It was endearing and again I was so thankful that someone in my life would tell me, "when are you free, I'm taking you to dinner." I made a note in my mental notebook that I would do this in the future, when I was able and there was a friend I wanted to see and couldn't make it happen.Also on Friday, a friend asked if her niece could stay with me. She had never met her adult niece and had invited her to volunteer at the Jazz Festival with her. Hotels were either not available or silly expensive and I offered my place for her niece to crash. She showed up with a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of Prosecco. I was again overwhelmed by joy. But the flowers and the sparkling wine were dwarfed by the human connection I had with her. We sat and talked for hours, sharing stories about our pasts, our dreams, and our families.Last week a friend and I were going to get pedicures. While driving to the nail salon she told me she had spent a good part of the morning crying."Why?" I asked and before she could answer "Why didn't you call me?"She explained that she was moving the following week and her fiancé was scheduled to come help her move but his work wouldn't give him the time off and---in addition to her being upset by not getting the chance to see him---now she had to pack all by herself.I looked at her and said "I will help you!"She went on to say I don't want to inconvenience you and I responded by saying life isn't always convenient but that's why we have friends. Friends aren't just there to take us out and have dinner with but they're also there when things don't go our way or as planned, they are there to help and give a hand."You would do that?" She asked.Of course! The number of times I've had to move and someone helped me or gave me a ride somewhere or let me stay in the guest bedroom is countless. Despite how the news portrays our society, there are many more kind and helpful people than there are bad people.As I swept pine needles on the roof of my parents' house, I pondered all of these friendships, and many more and was thankful for them. I thought about how friendships need to be nurtured but also friends understand when life gets busy or in the way, they tell you I want to see you and I will do anything in my ability to make that happen. Friends can come to you from anywhere and what a joy it is when you meet someone you click with.I know people who care about me give me a hard time for being "too nice" or "too giving." Too giving of my time, of my things, of my heart. But I would rather go through life giving more than keeping to myself and missing out on the wonderful experiences brought to us by friends. I encourage you to stop by and see a friend you have not enjoyed the company of in a while.  Share a little time and laughs.