The Riches of Friendship

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”
― Elbert Hubbard

  There is no one that fits this Elbert Hubbard quote better than my husband Mike. He is my love and he is my very best friend. I treasure him more than I can say. He is always there for me and that it saying something! I am an emotional person. I don’t glide easily through life. I feel things very deeply. The Lord knows this. Mike knows it all too well. And he is there for me through my troubles as he calls them.

I am blessed to have such a wonderful friend for life. He is almost as blessed to have me! lol! Today I am thankful for the many wonderful friends I have. I have reflected about them this afternoon. They bring great riches to life, great character, great depth and meaning. They also help a lot when the chips are down!

My dad is one of my best friends. He introduced me to this guy here. This is one of my very favorite pictures of he and I ~ took it myself. I’m not too experienced with cell phone self-photography!

My dad knows me pretty well and I don’t want to leave him out. He loves me fiercely and with great  humor too! We are a bit alike and he also says I remind him of Grandma Dorothy, his mom. That’s a big compliment. She was a very strong woman and I thought very funny! My family is close-knit so let me just say they are all my dear friends. My sister was out-of-town when I messed up some medication I was taking and I almost didn’t make it without her to talk to. She is fantastic! I love her and we’ve been best buds since she was born. We are 17 months apart.

You are rich if you have friends, no matter what you have in the bank. When we had to move a while back, due to my health. My girlfriend Mary rallied behind me and got her husband involved. I didn’t realize he was a gifted mover! It’s not his trade, it’s his gift! One of many. He can look at a piece of furniture and know if it will fit in an elevator for instance. My poor husband had lugged our huge couch up three flights of stairs with my daughter and her friend ~ when we moved in ~ because of the tract lighting in the elevator. It simply wouldn’t fit. Mary’s husband and my brother got it out in the elevator. Easiest move we ever had and we thought it would be the most difficult. She had it on her heart to help us, so she did. That is a friend.

My dear friend Heather and I have been together through thick and thin and surgeries and many prayers together. We will always be best friends. Yesterday her daughter turned 12. She lives in Arizona and I couldn’t be there. She made me feel so much a part of things by rapidly posting pictures of the evening before I went to sleep that evening, with two hours difference in time it was a feat! That’s one small thing her big generous heart of love has done for me over the years.

I love my friends. Social media is a goldmine for making new friends and reacquainting us with old friends. I so like my friend Joe. We met on Twitter and have continued our friendship on Skype and Facebook so that now we are old friends! He likes to talk on the phone like me! I guess we are of the same era. We hope to work together someday. We love to talk “shop” ~ social media, marketing, product promotion, development, websites, blogging, you name it, we are discussing it! Now all we need is a company!

Kathleen and Debi and I went to the same High School. Now we are terrific friends thanks to getting reacquainted online and going to lunch together. We are drawing some more Edina High girlfriends into our friendship bunch to rekindle and develop new relationships where old memories exist and new ones are being built. This makes life so rich and exciting!

There’s an old Girl Scout refrain that keeps going through my mind, many of you know. I believe it was true for that time: “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold.”

I don’t think it is the case anymore. I think all friends are gold. A gift from God, as dear friend Heather says. She is so right. Friends are a treasure. Every moment spent with one is a gift. I am so blessed to have many good friends. I am so loved and I am also very grateful.

There is a whole group of people that haven’t been mentioned, the fabulous social media family I have in the #UsGuys group on Twitter and Facebook, many of whom I have met in person and many more I hope to meet. God bless all of you and thank you for making my life all the more deep and beautiful for knowing you all.

Thank you my dear friends. For your support. For your listening ears. For your wise words. And for your love and acceptance. We may not always agree, life would be a dull place if we did, but we will learn from each other and go on.

“Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.”
― Sarah Dessen, Someone Like You

Thank you all for being a comfort to me when life gets difficult. For keeping things from being hard to bear. For your love and prayers when I need them. Be assured you are always in mine. And in my heart.