Friends

Our friends from Wisconsin / Florida decided to make a major detour on their trip home and come and visit us for the past 4 days.  We kept busy with them showing them the area; eating; talking; and playing dominoes.   They were pleasantly surprised by the remoteness and yet, how metropolitan is the Valley.  I will see them this summer when I'm in Wisconsin.

A friend that lives in our community and is my husband's golfing buddy, was severely injured in a motorcycle accident this past weekend.  Injuries to his leg have resulted in three surgeries so far and they originally questioned if they would be able to save his leg.  His healing recovery will take many weeks, but he will be able to walk again.  My husband will golf again with him.

Today, I brought a couple of photo enlargements to another couple that live in our community.  We share a "love" of the arts and we have many commonalities.  We ended up going out for a spontaneous, pleasant lunch with them as they are leaving Saturday to go to their summer home in New Hampshire.  We will visit them this summer.

Upon reflecting on these friends, I wonder what life would be like if we had not met them.  They are all "precious" to us.  Yet, they are friends that have just entered my life in the past ten years. 

It is a precious moment to me to realize the fortunes I have in the friends that I have met throughout my life.  There is a phrase, "make friends," that is apt description of what occurs within our lives.  We all meet lots of potential "friends" many times in our lives.  But not all of these people do we "make friends" with them, for the little while or the long while. 

To "make" something or a relationship involves ....creating, constructing, developing....just a few descriptions.  Friendship is a two-way street.  We don't just become friends by being passive and non-committal.  We become friends by becoming involved in their lives by caring and sharing.  Just as we do  with our family, sometimes even more than with our family.  It's the closest bond that people share, other than blood.