friendship

i have never been the type of girl who had tons of friends. i mean i have always had acquaintances, but as far as best friends, the ones that are fiercely loyal. the ones who love you no matter what mistakes you make. the ones who you can call at 3 in the morning. the ones who are with you through bad hair and even worse fashion, i can count those friends on one hand. and i hope that they all know who there are.....

my first friend that falls into this category i met in kindergarten. we were living in a small town in central texas, the town where my father was born and raised. i have very distinct memories of that friendship. ballet classes and birthday parties, her parents building a saltbox house outside of town, prize winning sheep that would pay for college, painting bluebonnets and indian paint brush on rotted wood, and an amazing collection of madame alexander dolls. we moved away before i entered the third grade, and i wonder if we had stayed, how that friendship would have developed. over the years we kept up with each other through family members mostly. and every groundhogs day i always think to myself "happy birthday sheffield".

fast forward to this past week and behold the power of the internet. i opened my email and saw an email address that i didn't recognize. it began like this, "i tried to find you on facebook. you don't facebook. i found your twitter page, but i don't tweet. and eventually i found your blog." and just like that an old friendship was reignited and the emails between the two of us began to fly, reconnecting over the pieces of our lives, work, marriage, family and children. and it was no surprise to me when i learned that she had her first baby months before i had my cooper. a testament that friendships of this nature have a connection that is stronger than time or distance, a connection that is bigger than you both, and that no matter how long it is been since you last spoke, you will always remain childhood best friends.

i have learned over the past months that your friends are what get you through, sure they are there during the good stuff. but the friends that matter are the ones who are there when your world falls apart. they carry you when you don't have the will to walk, they sit with you in your grief, and they give you hope that there are brighter days ahead. i hope that i can be as good of friend to those friends i can count on one hand, as they have been to me.

i love you all dearly!