The Gift of Friendship
“Where will your ‘friends’ be…”
When I was a teenager, I remember my mom saying in frustration, “Where will your ‘friends’ be when you’re older and truly needing someone?”
These words have echoed in my memory over the years. They returned to me once again as a long-time girlfriend just left after a week’s visit.
We managed to pack so many adventures into such a short timeframe. We put together the most challenging puzzle I’ve ever completed. We talked about life, children, retirement, and any other topic that came to mind. We laughed about silly things, bought plants, potted them and did some gardening, visited a museum, a natural spring, a community festival. We went out to eat, shopped at 4 different grocery stores (looking for one life-transforming item) and many boutiques. She cut my hair, we got a lap harp, tuned it and played music together around the campfire under a full moon.
My heart is so full and my life is enriched by our time together. This friend has been a friend through the most challenging times of my life. When I went through surgery she took a week-long vacation and stayed with me, assisting me in all those most challenging and intimate activities. Finding several 4-leaf clovers on the first short walks after surgery. She took me home with her when the week was over, as I needed just a few more days of assistance. She played Andra Day’s Rise Up as she drove me to surgery and we sang it together, “All we need, all we need is hope, and for that we have each other… and we will rise…. We'll rise up in spite of the ache, we'll rise up, and we'll do it a thousand times again.” The memory of this moment still brings tears to my eyes. She advocated for me and my health and continues to support me with fermented oatmeal recipes and miso salad dressing to ensure a healthy gut biome.
All this as she faces her own ongoing health and life challenges.
Friends Are Life’s Greatest Gifts
I have been gifted with so many close friends during the journey of my life: Dorothy, Kris, Timmie, Amy, Heidi, Rachel, Sara, Brenda, and newly forming ones like Sherry and Geralyn. Women who I could not have imagined my life without for many of the most joyful times have come when we were together. Camping, meditating, playing games, dancing, walking and talking, sharing the most challenging problems before us. Sharing with each other our perspectives and understandings.
Truly, I am not sure I would have made the journey this far without them. The value of a true and loving friendship is priceless as it gifts each other with so much support and understanding, but yet it is even deeper than this. There is Love given and received unselfishly. Like flowers in a garden that bring colorful splashes, these friends have brought joy with thoughtful notes at just the right moments, little thoughtful gifts given, cards sent and deep conversations late into the night. They offer comfort when times are rough and seemingly unsurmountable. Tears shed and shared relieve the stress and difficulty of life challenges. Joy is doubled when each little new exploration and success is shared.
The Gift of Friendship Is Available
This gift of friendship offers unconditional love and is possible for each of us. This Love divides our sorrows and helps us to rise up to find a brighter day. The love of a friend multiplies our joy. I believe this is the Love that Jesus encouraged us to share with one another as the most important aspect of living, for it is what makes life worth living. It is almost like there is a party that is always right below the surface of experience, waiting to happen. This joy of friendship springs forth into existence when we are truly open to another person, when we truly see them and begin to share our life with them. Where 1+1 = 3 or more. Where laughter and fun begin to brew and build. Like a bee on a flower, we are drawn to this goodness, and honey is the outcome … pure golden, lovely, life-honey.
Where will my friends be? They will be there, loving me, holding my hand, picking me up and taking me home after surgery, tending to my wounds whether they are physical, or emotional. They will be sharing recipes, their latest accomplishments, adventures and understandings. They will be sharing and enriching my life in ways that only they can.
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