[frend-ship]
noun
2.
a friendly relation or intimacy.
Friend:
[frend]
[frend]
noun
1.
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
3.
a person is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe?
4.
a member of the same nation, party, etc.
5.
( initial capital letter ) a member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.
Well, that research was a big let down, and seems kind of cold and impersonal, too.
Yesterday I spent most of the day with a friend, a long time friend, since 1962. We worked together at a publishing company, and later at the telephone company. There have been times we've not been closely connected, simply because we were both raising families. Although she did have a professional career as well as being a wife, mother and home maker. I, on the other hand gave up my professional career and chose to be a stay at home mother, wife and home maker.
Even though there would be long stretched between phone calls, we could always pick up our friendship exactly where it left off. She knew I was always there for her and I knew she was always there for me. And best of all we both knew we could tell each other anything.
In the early seventies, my husband's company transferred us to the Pacific Northwest, and by unexplained coincidence, my friend's husband got a job here too a month after we had made the move. Is that amazing or what? It dang sure was.
Busy, busy, busyness over the years made it was hard to get together to spend an afternoon, even though the desire to do so was great. Life is crazy, not just for the two of us, but for everybody. So, when the opportunity presents itself to have some quality one on one time, we jump on it, like a frog to a lilly pad.
Yesterday was THE DAY to have much needed time together. It was grand, it was glorious, it was great.
We went to lunch, and lingered there long after we had finished eating. We drove around so she could see the changes that had been made in my neck of the woods since her retirement. We shopped. We talked, and talked, and talked. We went for dessert, and lingered there long after we had finished eating. We stayed so long after we paid the bill, the waitress came back to ask if she could refill our coffee mugs while we talked. The restaurant began to fill with customers wanting early dinner. We finally decided perhaps we should leave, and it was apparently good timing because some woman nabbed our table before it had even been bussed.
We returned to my place, and women, being the age we are, immediately headed for the bathrooms. Damn bladders.
We talked a few minutes more, then headed out toward her car. It was close to five, and I was concerned about what kind of traffic she might encounter. Turns out her potty break at my house was a good thing.
Anyway, the gist of this blog is friendship. We meet a lot of people on our trek through life. Sometimes the meeting is fleeting and we know we will never meet these people again. Sometimes we have acquaintances, kind of like tips of tentacles on at octopus...A favorite check-out person at the stores we frequent. We will purposely head for their check out aisle, even thought there are aisles with shorter lines. The people in our dentist office, we know them, we are comfortable with them, we receive a warming welcome when we arrive.
Then, there are life long friends we've had since childhood, the ones we snuck out with after dark to toilet paper another friends house, or tossed eggs with on Halloween. You know...the ones who know and share all our childhood secrets.
Then, in adulthood, there are new friendships, those we meet in our professional lives. Our co-workers, the ones who sit in front or behind us in identical, little, cubicles. Some of those friendships last a lifetime, too.
As we age some of those friendships come to an abrupt ends. Enemies attack.
Cancer, dementia among the worst. We mourn, then sadly scratch their name, address and phone number from our address books.
So it is we must savor friends and friendships, and in my minds eye I can see that mine have been making a quilt, it's big, and colorful, each square holding a picture of a memory, with a friend's name embroidered beneath it. Oh, how I savor it.
Yesterday is now a square, and I will spend today sewing it to the square before.
Thank you dear friend for a wonderful day, it was grand, it was glorious, it was great.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
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