Friends. Who new??

I have had few true friends in my life.  Truth be told, a lot of the reason for that is my fault.  I had wonderful childhood friends, but once I moved to Utah, I never really felt like I fit in.  And then I always had a boyfriend which kept me from doing things with friends.  I don't think I knew how to live my life any other way at the time.  From my experience, girls could be very petty in nature as well as fickle and mean.  So I chose to have really good guy friends and several serious boyfriends.  In college, I had two really good roommates named Amy and Alison and the rest were nut-cases.  After we got married, we had several fun couples that we did a lot with, but everyone's life was transient at the time so we (and they) were always moving on.  After I had children, I felt consumed with raising them and honestly, Robert was already everything I needed.  There was and is no one that is as much fun or as interesting or as understanding and helpful as him.  I have never been a person that needed more than one or two really good friends and often, when life got tedious, I found friends to be time-consuming and at times burdensome.  I am of the opinion that people often use friends to substitute for a lack of emotional intimacy with spouses and children.
     In the past couple of years, however, I have really learned the great blessing that a friend can be.  For the first time in my life, I have been surrounded by the most inspiring, honest, fun people that I ever have in my life.  This weekend, I was invited with 3 other women to go to a cabin in Wyoming for a "girl's weekend".  We talked, laughed, cried, ate, and shared non-stop for 12 hours the first day and the 5 hours until we left on the second day.  And none of the conversation was wasted on gossip, or husband-bashing as some girl's getaways are.  It was one of the most profound experiences of my life to hear of these women's hardships, tragedies, successes, opinions, and senses of humor.  I felt so inspired and uplifted by these incredible women.  I feel protected, like if anything bad happened in my life, I would have stalwart people to lean on.
     It's so nice when you get to be a grown-up and can have friends of all ages.  Some of my friends are younger, some my age, some my parent's age, and I even have one who is in her mid-sixties--  Dear Joann who I visit teach, who has a love of photography similar to mine and who several months ago said to us that she felt like s_ _ _  that day and so she didn't want to hear the lesson we had prepared. (!) So refreshing.  I also have had the opportunity to become a member of a Mom's discussion group.  A friend from my past (who has since become a dear friend) invited me into this discussion group and I have loved hearing other Moms' viewpoints, different life experiences, and insights.  I also occasionally run with a group in my neighborhood at 5:45 am in the morning.  They are all strong athletes, good friends, and the conversation is fun.  Opening myself up to friends has really given me more compassion for all people because I have realized that every person has a compelling story to share.  Every person has something to teach me.  And really, in the end, we're all more alike than we are different.  

Julie and I

Me and Lucinda at Disney World

Me, Inger, Teresa, and Annie at the cabin