296 "FRIENDS"???

Friendship + Me = Complicated

I have learned much about friendship through out my lifetime.

I learned in elementary school how much fun a best friend is.

And how confusing it is when she is taken from you to heaven because her precious life was cut short.

I learned in junior high and high school how difficult it is to form friendships when you're not popular. 

I learned in college that most of the friendships were fast and fleeting as we all moved on with our life to marriages, families, and careers.

I learned as an adult, you're lucky if you find one or two "real" friends.

And then again, how it hurts when the one you thought was your new-found answer to prayer, is once again called to heaven and her life is cut short as well.

All my life, my friends have either passed away, moved away, or dumped me.

I am now approaching a new phase in my life.

I am getting older.

Wiser.

I have developed a couple "relationships" of types again.

Do I dare refer to them as friends?

Sometimes I'm afraid to.

After my last friend passed away, I told my mom that I was afraid to open myself up to any more friendships.

Essentially afraid they too would die.

I mean seriously...how many close friends of  yours have died during their childhood or in as a young mother?

Mom told me I have to open myself up to take chances.

I am glad I did.

I have developed a very special bond with a new friend.

Well, we've become friends over the past three years.

We went to the same school and were many years apart.

We rarely talked in school, just due to the age difference.

But now...

She has become someone I cherish and hold dear.

Real friends aren't the ones who comment on your Facebook status each day.

They don't need "prompting" to interact with you.

REAL FRIENDS are the ones who come to you when you AREN'T there.

They NOTICE when you're quiet.

They NOTICE when you're absent.

They NOTICE small diferences in you.

They can tell if something isn't quite right.

I have 296 Facebook friends.

Out of all those hundreds of "friends", I talk to only maybe 8-10 on a regular basis.

But...

It is my one TRUE friend who notices when I've been gone for a while.

She notices my "tone" in my status updates.

She doesn't need to be "prompted" by my posts to ask me, "How's it going?" or say, "I miss you!"

We can share anything with each other.

I know it's not going anywhere when I tell her.

To this day...

I will never understand how this friendship came to be.

If someone would have told me that she and I would be close friends, we'd have both probably said, "You're kidding, right?"

Because when you're younger, all you see is age difference.

Now...we are both wives, mothers, work full time...so we have a lot in common.

We "get" each other.

I just wanted to say how eternally grateful I am for God bringing us together.

It was totally a God-thing.

I truly didn't think I'd ever have another friend I could trust my heart to.

Thank-you God for my TRUE FRIEND.