Fab Friday: Friends

{photo credit Valerie Everett}


Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Good, true Friends are an amazing thing. They can get you through good times and bad. They can lift you up and ground you to reality. If you are lucky enough to have a friend that has been your friend since childhood, consider your self blessed. I wish I did. Don't get me wrong, I have some of the most amazing friends in the world, but I think there is something extra special and extraordinary about having someone in your life that knew you before you were you. Someone that knew you before you grew up and became that person you are today.

I blame myself for not having more "old friends". I throw myself whole heatedly into whatever stage, thing, or period of my life I am in. When I changed school districts from grade school to high school I threw myself into the school I was at, no looking back. I tried a little harder in college but balance was not something I had learned yet. If it weren't for the persistence and awesomeness of some of my friends I am wondering if I would talk to anyone who knew me before college (that is if Facebook didn't exist).

When I left my job to stay home and be a mom I realized that all my "friends" in this new city I was living in were not friends but "co-workers". That's when I truly learned that I needed to do more then live in the right now. I needed to tend my garden of friends to make it grow and thrive. I've been working hard on that, it's not an easy balance for me. When we moved to suburbia I found it easier to keep my "city friends" close and just skim the surface with the new people in my life. At least I was older and a wee bit wiser this time, or it might have been my husband complaining about all the gas being "wasted" driving back and forth, either way I tried harder to make the relationship meaningful.

{photo credit: txkun}

A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself.

I have seen the power of friends lately. They have held me up and reminded me of who I am, and who I can be. They sent me notes like this:

You are much stronger than you think -as one of your friends I know this for a fact. Believe in your strength because it is in you.

You have many many gifts....

They have always come at just the right time and were just what I needed to hear. They have sprung new ventures, new ideas, and new hope in me. They have gotten me out of bed and excited to start the day, not always, but enough. Friends that I didn't know I had have feed us and prayed for us and offered us comfort when we didn't want any. They have been our angels.

{photo credit: maryn0503}

We are all angels with only one wing...we can fly only embracing each other

Angels don't always live on your block, or in your city, or state.

When I was in my darkest moments, my closest friends, my angels were not with me in person but in spirit. I reached out to the friends I have made on Twitter because I knew someone would be there, right there at that minute. I didn't have to worry about family seeing something before I had answers, like I would on Facebook. I didn't have to worry about being able to talk coherently. I reached out as I was falling and they held me up and hugged me tight, and walked me through.

{photo credit: travilnman43}

Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet;
and two others at first speech are old friends.
- Mary Catherwood

At first "tweet " I felt like I knew many of you. I never, in a million, gazillion years would have ever thought I would have developed such intense friendships form what I thought was a frivolous time waster, a Facebook for strangers. My friends that are here, in person, get hugs and cards and know how much I appreciate and love them. You my "virtual" (although I hate that word, because you are so real) friends, are getting this sappy blog post and some linky love, because you Becky, Heather, Ann, Erin, Liz, Deb, Shell, Ashley, Beth, Stephanie, Hyacynth, Barb, Gretchen, Zeghsy, Lara, Amanda, SaraJoy, Jessica, and anyone else who I might have missed.

Thank you, thank you for being there so I wasn't alone. Thank you for making me laugh when all I wanted to do was cry. Thank you for giving me hope and inspiration, and for being around in the early hours of the cold mornings whenever one else was sleeping.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:

If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!


{photo credit: marcusjroberts }