Monday, June 17, 2013

Lifelong Friends

Our children are forming friendship with each other now.

Remaining connected to others makes you more alive. It seems to me that my newly created relationships, those made later in life do not have the depth, the character, the trust or the stability that the friendships that go back in time have, those that have remained through the test of time.


I have an amazing circle of friends from my childhood, two went through high school with me and we recently spent time together, with our families, during our 20 year high school reunion. Time has tested each of  of us, but never threatened our friendship. Unequivocal support is the unspoken foundation of our bond. While our conversations typically dwell on happier times, we all clearly remember the sadder ones. One was widowed as a young woman. One divorced in the same months as a job layoff and a major surgery. I moved off away from the others to attend college and still don't live near them; that doesn't stop the support or the love.

We have been there for each other through good and bad, thick and thin. Each one of us has had our hardships, but it's easier when you have friends like these to support you. I can talk to them if I'm anxious, afraid, worried, happy or sad. I am free to be who I am with them. I have known them longer than I have known my husband. They know what made me.

Times like ones when were in grade school attending "whirly-birds" or summer camp at Camp Sooner. Or in high school when on Friday nights we would put on our cutest outfits and cruise up and down 12th Street, tee-pee friends houses together, or worshiping at CIY Conferences with hundreds of other youth.

We grew up in very different households as children, but our love for Jesus and each other make us very similar.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Here is a great article about how to create a community for men http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/06/18/how-to-create-a-lifelong-brotherhood/