Catching up

There is nothing so nice as finding a friend who has wandered out of your life and by a miraculous circumstance wanders back in.

This has been such a weekend for me.

Often, people are well meaning in saying they will keep in touch, but the reality is that they don't have an emotional investment anymore. That's called life. We tend to be seasonal visitors in the gardens of one another's hearts.

Most of the time that is a fairly satisfactory arrangement. A long phone call, exchanged email addresses and a time to catch up on the who, what, when, where and why of life is sufficient to make things good.

But, we all need a friend and confidant who is more than just an occassional guest in our lives. Whether that need for the companionship and easy familiarity of one another's company is found in a logical way or by letting your heart lead you, there are special times in which you find someone who can own a piece of your heart and it doesn't even hurt when they take ownership over that special place.

Carefully cultivating a relationship that is built of both commonalities and differences requires the sowing of seeds. Our seeds of thought and action that make each day a time to grow more and learn more in the friendship.

I had the opportunity to attend a women's conference this weekend with my best friend. We had a blast! Coming away from the event with a well of understanding and love from God was a wonderful gift in and of itself.

But having that cherished time spent not only with God, but with one of his most special children made it even that much more cherished.

We tend to be a disposable society most of the time. I can literally count on a few fingers the women who own a piece of my heart. Each is for a reason as individual as they are. And no two of them are alike in most things. But they all have one quality that makes them special to me.

They have shown themselves to be all-weather friends. Anybody can come to the summer garden and have a nice time. Real friends are the ones who make a bleak winter bright as a July picnic day.

If you have a few friends who mean the world to you, TELL THEM.

NOW.

I MEAN IT - STOP READING AND TELL THEM! You can always see what insanity is going on for them and it somehow makes whatever you are dealing with a bit lighter by just sharing with each other.