Best Friends

What would we ever do if best friends had never been invented! Some of our best friends may date back for decades to friends we made in school, whether it be grade school or college. Those friends are the ones that have stuck by you through thick and thin. They were there to hold your hand at times of trouble. They were there to support you through all the tough decisions you had to make. They were there to laugh with you initially at the funny things you did. Such as setting all the clocks in Woolworth's to go off at the same time or tying kites to your bikes and then riding like mad to make them fly. Then they are there to laugh every time you reminisce about those days gone by. They were there to share your joys when you were young. As the years go by, they continue to be close still, even if it's by means of a phone call or through email. They continue to share our ups and downs. It is amazing that those friendships can continue to grow after a quarter or more of a century.

Then you have the friends you make as your progress through your life. They come into your life when you need them most. When I think back on my friends, I am amazed that life brought us together exactly at the times I needed them. They support us through times we never thought we could get through. They shared their stories with us and we saw similarities to our own lives. Those friendships continued to build. At times, it may have been as though we had resorted back to our teen years as we did some very silly things with those friends. Those things would include doing cartwheels to cheer you up, toilet papering friends homes, and dancing like we were sixteen (even though we knew we'd feel it in the morning). They were the ones we'd stay up talking with into the wee hours of the early morn. Those friends help us grow in our adult years. They help us look at situations from a different perspective. They help us through some major changes sometimes, changes in our lives we never expected to face. They bring life back into our lives through their kindness and love. Sometimes it may be as simple as their warm smile or gentle touch. Those friends are there also for us when we need them. They may understand us better then we understand ourselves.

We also are fortunate as we grow older to have our siblings and our children become our friends. When we were growing up, sometimes we liked having our siblings tag along, other times we did not. Sometimes we were the ones tagging along, and we were the ones picked on. When our children were growing up, we were their moms. We had to set limits and curfews. Sometimes they didn't agree with us and sometimes they didn't like us. But we knew it was not a popularity contest raising our children, so we continued to set limits. As they grew, we began to release responsibility to them and we became proud of who they grew into. Now as adults, we can call our sisters, brothers, daughters and sons our friends. We have learned to call on them for help when we need it and share our inner most thoughts with them. It is so wonderful that someone we watched grow, someone we shared our youth with, someone we nurtured through all their trials and victories, now we can call our friend. Even though we may not see them as often as we like, we can always pick up where we left off the last time we were together and carry on as if it were just yesterday.