Friendship

I tried to find the source of some pictures with quotes that my longtime friend, Cheryl, sent me in an email and found two more quotes that I really liked.

Friends are God’s ways of apologizing for our families.
~ Anonymous
I so agree with this one. We all know we can't choose our family. It is what it is, and sometimes the friends in our life are much closer to us than those we call family. Oftentimes we would prefer our friends to be our family. And many times I've witnessed where friends became the family that a person didn't have in their blood relatives.



It takes a long time to grow an old friend.
~ John Leonard

So true. My friend, Cheryl, has been in my life for all of my adult life. We became friends when I was still in my teens, and she was a young married mother about to give birth to twins. I'm not sure she really believed she was going to have twins. They didn't have ultra sounds in those days. But she did give birth to identical twin girls. I loved babies and was so excited to have a friend that had twins. I still remember going over to her house to help with them, and give them their baths in the sink. I often babysat them and their older sister while she and her husband went out for the evening.
It was kind of funny because I was dating the man who was to later become my first husband. He would call me up for a date and I would tell him I had already agreed to babysit the twins and Tina. He would offer to go with me and help me out, so our "dates" were going over to Cheryl's and babysitting! I don't know a lot of men who would have thought that was fun, but Michael loved it as much as I did. It sure did make taking care of them much easier.
Cheryl and I have been friends for over 41 years. We have seen each other through many things and while we may not agree on everything, we have both worked to maintain the friendship over time. We have had periods where we didn't see each other for long stretches. Things just got busy for us, or we lost touch by moving or circumstances changing. By chance we would run into each other again and start right back where we left off. Since then we have both been determined to make sure we don't lose touch again, and we make time for each other almost every week when we get together for breakfast. There's just nothing better than a good friend who has been through life with you.

I love you, Cheryl and hope we have many more years to come!

Here are the pictures that Cheryl sent in the email. I couldn't find any information to post about their source, but since they are going around the internet, through the emails, I think it will be alright to post them here. If anyone knows the source, I would gladly acknowledge the person who put the quotes and pictures together!
Enjoy!

Getting out more.

The road to a friend's house is never long.
Danish Proverb

My friend, Becky, gave me a wooden plaque with that message on it a few years back. I have it hanging on the wall. It took me a long time to realize that it should also include me. In other words....why did I always expect that everyone should come to my house?

This is something I have really had to work on this past two years. When I joined the "101 in 1001 Mission", it was one of my goals to stop being such a hermit. I made it a goal to go to my friends's houses more often, instead of always expecting them to come to my house. I also made it a goal to get out more and do things and go places. It is so easy for me to be a hermit and shut myself away from the world. I love my home and being in it and I have to work to leave it on the days when I don't work.

I have made good progress on this goal. Becky and I have made many trips in the last year and have had some really nice times going new places and seeing new things. I have also gone to visit more people and not copped out on going to functions. It's not been easy, but it has been fun. I am not a person who really likes crowds and big parties or gatherings. I have been making myself go to some of these things and have actually had fun.

I am going to continue to try and get out more and spend more time with some of the people I hardly ever see because of my swing-shift schedule. I can actually go places in the mornings and still go to work in the afternoon. haha. It's a work in progress, but I am making progress. Which reminds me...I really need to go check out my goals and see how I'm doing. The challenge ends this September and I think I have a LOT of reading to do.

Friends...the definition and some quotes.

You have a good life if you have even just one good friend. I'm not sure if that is a quote or just a thought. I read a lot and maybe I read it somewhere, but friends sure do make traveling through this life easier. Here is the definition I found online. I think I could come up with more definitions if I gave it a minute, but I slept in today and I'm trying to finish rearranging my farms so I can spend less time farming and more time being productive. Tomorrow I begin my whirling dervish period, so today was my last lazy day! Wish me luck on my projects!



friend (frnd)
n.
1. A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
2. A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
3. A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
4. One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement: friends of the clean air movement.



Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer.
Author Unknown

A friend is someone who knows all about you, and loves you just the same.
Proverb

The road to a friend's house is never long.
Danish Proverb

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
Helen Keller

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow;
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead;
Walk beside me, and just be my friend.
Albert Camus

A friend is a gift you give yourself.
Robert Louis Stevenson

It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.
Marlene Dietrich

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
Plutarch

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked.
Author Unknown

Friends

Friends is the theme this month and I've been thinking how nice it is to have friends and how sometimes it's kind of like the tide. The friendships ebb and flow over time. I have had friends that were actually great friends even though we saw each other very seldom. Sometimes our schedules were just opposite, or sometimes there were other extenuating factors that made it difficult to actually get together, but when we did finally find the time to reach out to one another it was like no time at all had passed since we last saw each other. Sometimes you spend so much time with one friend and don't have any time for another.Sometimes you have a couple of friends with whom you get together and spend time many times over the course of a year as a group. Friendships come in all sizes, shapes and colors and hundreds of configurations. There is just no one way to define friendship.

I've come to learn that friendship survives these kind of things if you and the other person truly have an understanding and a strong bond of some kind. I've also learned that some people cannot handle friendship that is not exclusive and 24/7. I, myself, prefer the friendships that are tested over time and remain strong with or without actually spending tons of time together. 24/7 friendships tend to wear me out and I've found that many of the people who want that type of friendship have issues if another friend needs your time or things happen in your life that cause you to be unavailable to them. I've also found that those who want a 24/7 style of friendship are often not true friends. I'm not sure why that is, but it has proven true to me more times than once.

I didn't really have a direction with this blog. I just was thinking about the subject at hand because the blogs I've written so far this month have very little to do with friends per se. They have been picture blogs about things that I saw one day on a trip out with a friend, just not anything about friendship in general. I think I will try to find some good stuff about friendships and some philosophical sayings and post a few blogs about what makes friendships special. Maybe I can even tie it into some of my best friendships and give some kudos to the folks I call friends, whether we have met in real life or only on the internet and what makes them special to me. I will try to start tomorrow, but maybe not until Monday. Tomorrow is supposed to be my LAST lazy day of the lazy streak I've been having. So I just might need to take full advantage of it and be VERY LAZY because Monday I am going to turn into a whirling dervish! That's just how I roll!

Fortune cookies.

I keep accidentally posting my blogs right after I put the title up. Stooopid computer.
I just can't seem to get used to the keyboard on this new laptop.

So, anyway...

I thought it was pretty cool when my friend, Chris, and I went to dinner at PF Chang's and got these two fortunes in our fortune cookies.



It's pretty good stuff when the fortune cookie gods give you stuff like this. Hundreds of fortune cookies to choose from and we got these! Yep. Good stuff!

That's all I have for today. Happy blogging!