BEST FRIENDS MAKE THE BAD TIMES GOOD; & THE GOOD TIMES UNFORGETTABLE!!
On a more personal note a friend is someone with whom you are comfortable around and enjoy their company. Someone you can laugh with until you pee your pants and then you laugh even harder because you did pee your pants!
We form friendships at a very early age. We may not know what friendships are until later but even toddlers form friendships. We play, laugh, and cry together and have all sorts of fun. We know we just enjoy spending time with one another that has like interest. As we grow so do our friendships. Sometimes we grow apart and sometimes we grow closer. Sometimes friends move or we move and we have to form new friendships, (that is always hard). The friendships we acquire during elementary school are some of the strongest bonds we can make. They set the precedence on how we make friends and sometimes they carry over into pre-teen and high school. Some of my favorite memories are of my high school friends.
I was never in the “in” crowd; I was always the “regular geeky band” kid. I didn’t have a fancy car or the newest name brand clothes but my parents worked hard and provided for me and my sister very well. We never wanted for anything. But I do remember having the BEST group of friends a girl could ask for. The entire high school band was like a large friendship circle. We were all close to one another and when one had a problem it became everyone’s problem. Chorus was the same except the small performing group I belonged to was probably the closet group of friends at that time in my life. We were awesome!!
Then you graduate, you tell each other you will remain friends forever…then life happens…. You look up and 29 years have passed and you try to remember where all those friends are and what they are doing. If you are lucky you still have one or two you still talk to on occasion.
We come upon a new milestone and as we graduate we make new friends. These friends are a different type of friend. If you go to college or the military they are more acquaintance friends than truly formed friendships. You party, study, and work with these types of friends. Sometimes you walk away with a lifelong friend and then other times you just walk away.
Now we have the adult friends. The kind we shop with, cookout with, meet the Mr/Mrs Right with, and sometimes they are by your side if the Mr/Mrs. Right turns out to be Mr/Mrs. Wrong! These friends are in it for the long haul. Often these friends are “new” “old” friends. You know the one you had back in high school and reconnected.
As we grow, get married, and have babies we acquire the mommy/daddy friends. You know the ones; the football, baseball, cheerleader friends. It is because your kids are friends with their kids so you become friends with the parents (often at the chagrin of your kids). Sometimes these friendships carry over and sometimes they don’t and that is life.
With all of that said, I want to make a statement. I happen to have some of the GREATEST friends on the planet! I am not just saying that to be nice or to boast, I am just announcing the truth. I can’t tell you how many friends have come and gone in my lifetime. I have to admit the people that are in my life now are some of the greatest! I have friends still from high school and my single days that I know if I needed ANYTHING, all I would have to do is pick up the phone and they would be right there. I have friends that I do not talk to on the phone as often as I should and when we do talk it is like we just spoke to one another yesterday.
We all have that GROUP of friends….you know the ones; the ones that at the drop of a hat they would show up with a shovel, a black trash bag, and a bag of lime and wouldn’t ask questions when you needed to hide a body! (LOL) I have been blessed with two of these groups!
The first group is a group of girlfriends that have been in my circle for well over 20 years. We have worked alongside one another, witnessed the birth of babies, cried when a relationship or marriage went south and swore to each other that no matter how old we get we will always make time for that dinner and/or glass of wine. They know my evil thoughts before I know them and are just as conniving as I am. The older I get the more I appreciate these types of friendships. Shelli, Charlotte, Karen, and April….You girls know I would go to the ends of the earth for you and never think twice about it. I love you all tremendously and so glad we have reconnected.
I have also been blessed and fortunate to find myself in the company of some other AMAZINGLY FABULOUS women!! We became what I will call “accidental friends”. We met through our husbands. We were blessed to meet through a group of “brothers” called the Lost Brotherhood MC. We ride together, have dinner together, and often spend more time with each other than our biological families. We love each other’s kids as our own. Debbie, Niki, Lisa, Nicole, Stephanie, Mary, Toni, and many more of you ladies….YOU ROCK MY SOCKS! I love you guys more than you will ever know.
So, I shall close with this – We all wear many friendship hats. Just because friendships come and go, it is never a tragedy. Read this poem and just remember…..there is always a reason, a season, or a lifetime! Love to all of my friends; Past, Present, and Future!!
Thanks for taking time to read!!
Reason, Season, or Lifetime
People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you figure out which one it is,
you will know what to do for each person.
When someone is in your life for a REASON,
it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty;
to provide you with guidance and support;
to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend, and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,
this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.
Some people come into your life for a SEASON,
because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it. It is real. But only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;
things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person,
and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
— Unknown
