Friendship...

Friendship...it is such a valuable thing. I have friends I've known since I was in second grade...since sixth grade...since high school, since my early married life...some friends I have, I see once every three or four years...some I've actually not met in real life, being internet friends, scattered all over the globe, from Australia, to Ireland, from Arkansas to Washington DC to Pennsylvania. What is this thing we call friendship? For a woman, I believe it takes a different 'tone' than it does for a man.

Deep friendship...it isn't just the occasional "hi" and "how are you"...although greetings and genuine concern are a part of it..there is the calm easygoing living of life...a true friend, is one who doesn't mind when you mend socks as she talks. In fact, she probably grabs one and helps (or tries to, lol). When you go to her house, you might wipe down counters and tabletops while she is doing the dishes, chatting all the while. It is a sisterhood of a different sort... not biological, but something else entirely...a sisterhood of the soul.

And sometimes--rarely enough, especially when there are children involved!--you can just sit and 'be' together...you don't have to talk...although I know my friends and I usually do. You can disagree, gently, without the burden of feeling like you have to convince each other--because you are comfortable with each other, and your differences... you know you don't have to agree, because you have more history, more depth to the relationship, than a simple disagreement will destroy...

Being comfortable together is just part of friendship, of course...sometimes, it takes a while to get there. For some people though, it just "clicks". On rare occasions, there are friendships that hit deep fairly quickly, for whatever reason...sometimes, a person just comes into your life, and you take them in, fully, right away.

What makes that person different from the next? Who knows. There is a certain, unidentifiable 'something' that just falls right into place...I'm sure you know what I mean. You two may or may not be complete opposites in every possible way, but for some reason, the friendship just...works.

Over the last year or so, give/take a bit, I've had the pleasure to make the online acquaintance of a nice gentleman from the far north. We have a similar outlook and religious beliefs...we both homeschool our children, and both lean towards a more...agrarian...lifestyle. But while I had gotten to know this gentleman, I'd not had the pleasure to get to know his wife. Until this last week, when she journeyed close to my home. I had every reason to expect her to be some nice, genial person. A good mother, nice Catholic lady. But while I expected her to be nice, I had no really outstanding expectations...

But I had no idea, that she was going to be one of those certain people that once met, become an instant friend. And while I would be welcoming to a total stranger, it is all the more wonderful to be able to help a friend, even one just met. It is all the sweeter to find a new friend and be able to add something to their life, even if it is a small thing. A purely by chance 'meeting' online, of her husband, has led to making a new, and wonderful!, friend. And while they live far away from here (in what I would call the Great White Northern Hinterlands!), I know that I won't be the same for the simple friendship of this wonderful lady and her family. I count myself blessed to have been able to help them even a bit in their current endeavours, but even had I not been in a position to aid them, it would have been just as sweet to meet her, and make a new friend.

If any of you are reading this, please pray for M and her family, and their current project. They are really wonderful Christian folks, and I pray for all the best for them....