Time, Space, and Friends

Tonight I'm thinking about my friends.

I'm thinking back to Middle School when the thought of moving on to a new High School with new people was so unbearable I could hardly breathe. I really thought in my 14 year old mind that my 14 year old friends would be my best friends forever. If it weren't for Facebook, I wouldn't know what ANY of those 14 year old bff's were doing right now.

Then came high school. I love my high school friends still. But I remember a time where we were inseperable. Where we would spend 6 hours a day with each other at school, hang out after school, then go home and talk on the phone for 2 hours, only to see each other the very next morning. How we did that, I'm not quite sure. But, I never imagined there would come a time in our lives where we had to schedule hanging out with each other 6 months in advance.

Then there were my college friends. We lived together. We studied together. We spent every waking and sleeping moment together. We loved and fought as if we grew up in the same household with the same parents vying for the same affections. Love it was. Love it is. And yet, we all get together maybe twice a year now because of this chasm called life. I would've never imagined that it would come to this. I thought they were my forever. And they are...they are my forever that gets together twice a year.

Then came real life. My adult life. No more confines of school helping me choose my friends. It's the real deal world. Where I met a boy, we made friends together, we got married, we had a baby and those friends were suddenly our friends for life. When you make friends in the adult realm, well, you really do think that's it. You have your roots planted and your foundation isn't marked off by 4 year increments ending in a cap and gown. The friendships I have right now are different because they don't just involve someone loving me (which is so easy;) ), it involves people loving us. Choosing to love and invest in not just me, but Owen and Jace as well. It's a vulnerable place to be.

So, let me brag about my friends. They are the kind that leave flowers on my doorstep when I've had a bad day. The kind that watch my baby when my husband is out of town so I can get out of the house. The kind that believe in my abilities more than I ever could. The kind that use their talents to bless me. The kind that take me out for spa days.  The kind that pray for me when I don't feel like praying. The kind that make me laugh so hard that I think I might die.  The kind I see in my future, dancing at Jace's wedding with me and remembering the day he was born like it was yesterday. The kind that have melted the lines of friendship into a puddle of family.

But as the patterns have gone to show, just when I'm comfortable with the way things are, friendships change.  Even when they are in your forever. We get a special time and place where we're all heading in the same direction, but eventually, someone's gonna have to make a turn.

So tonight, I'm thankful for all the real friendships I've had, all the way back to 14 year old me. In each phase of life I loved hard enough to never want to see them go.

Yet, God always provided me a new friend walking at the same time, in the same direction, on the same road I was travelling on.

Because of this,

The journey has been simply beautiful.