Thank you for being a friend....

 There are so many types of friendships. There are the friends we run into when we drop our kids off at school or in the halls at work, and the friends we see only once or twice a year. There are the friends that we don’t really like, but can’t seem to lose, and there are the friends that we can’t imagine not having in our lives. There is the friend we can count on for anything, and the friend we wouldn’t call unless we were really desperate. There’s the friend that makes us laugh, and the friend who makes us cry……and thank God there is that friend we can cry with. 

  We all have that friend we've known FOREVER! They know almost everything about us, and if we make them mad we might have to worry about some Skeletons escaping that very old, deep closet. She’s the one who knows all the stories of our past. She can remember who our first love was……and she will laugh with us when we try to remember why we liked the guy with attributes only a mother could love. She knows our greatest fears and has seen some come to pass…..and she supported us though the whole thing…even if from afar. She’s the one that will always hold the Best Friend title, even if we don’t talk for months. After all, she earned it!

 There’s that friend who makes us laugh. We know we can’t be drinking anything when we’re chatting with her for fear that it might end up coming out through our nose. She’s the one we call when we need to smile or change our mood when we wake up on the wrong side of the bed. She’s the one we can dance and sing with even when the rhythm is bad and we sound like a mashed cat.  But don’t just think she’s only there for a good time. She’s also been there when we need a good cry. We all love this friend!

 Unfortunately most of us have that friend who only calls when SHE needs something. And for some reason we continue to feed the friendship even though every time we talk to her we become more emotionally malnourished. She calls and talks about all the great things in her life, all the horrible things in her life, and how so and so is this or that. We listen…..and don’t even try to get in a word edgewise because we know there’s no use. She doesn’t want to hear our two cents anyway!  Even though this friendship is sucking the life out of us, we will continue to be there for this friend because she brings out the human doormat in us. Eventually we will get tired enough to wish her well and send her on her way.

 Some of us are blessed enough to have the sister friend. She’s the only one who can understand when we are thoroughly annoyed with our parents….or our other siblings. She knows the details of our childhood and yet for some reason always remembers that one story completely different than we do. She’s the one who will tell us off and throw something at us right before she slams her bedroom door in our face, but if anyone else does anything to hurt us she is on the war path. No other friendship can hold a candle to a sister friendship. Through the good and the bad we are bonded for life!

 I’m personally extra thankful for the DVR watching, tea drinking, deep conversation friends. We show up at their door in jammies, holding a bag full of snacks that will totally ruin our diets…and we eat it all!  Days with those friends are the best days. This year I think I will add more of those days to my calendar.

 So here’s what I’ve come to understand about friendship. Whether a friend is a life-timer or is only in our life for a season, they were meant to be there. Each person I have called friend has taught me something. The lessons weren’t always easy…sometimes they were quite painful, but I am grateful for each one of them. To those of you I call friend, thank you for being all of the things I’ve written and more. For all the trying friendships I have had, I have had double the beautiful ones. I truly hope I have been someone you can talk to, laugh with, cry with, and enjoy life with. 

And as the song goes.......

"Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
Your heart is true your a pal and a confidant.

And if you through a party

Invited everyone you ever knew
You would see the biggest gift would be from me
And the card attached would say thank you for being a friend."

Your friend,

Richelle