Day 14- 30 Days of Gratitude
Gratitude #14 What do you love about a friend?
Like many writers, I tend to be rather introverted and my social life is rather quiet. I have a few good friends, though, for which I am very grateful.
While these friends are widely different in profession, personality, and even the part of the country in which they live, in thinking about it, I realized that they all have a very strong commonality. All of my good friends are very kind people. Though they have strong and distinct views, they are all genuinely thoughtful, caring people who are willing to reach out and extend kindness to those around them, even those very different from themselves. I am so grateful for these special ladies who have been genuinely kind to me.
I met my friend in 1962 and we have carried on a long-distance correspondence ever since. She is creative, funny and although we rarely get to see each other we write letters… yes, snail mail. She hates talking on the phone and texting. We are old-school and don’t utilize the technology this generation lives for. Back in the day, we’d try to out-do each other in creative ways to write our letters. She has written letters on toilet paper, a paper cash register roll, the back of a paper menu when they went out to dinner. I write one backward and it required a mirror to read the message. I wrote on puzzle pieces and she had to assemble the puzzle to read it. Our husbands just laugh at our antics. The one thing we both have is a shredder. When we vent… we trust completely that the letter will go through the shredder. To each other… we are like a black hole and anything that goes in does not come out. That trust is precious in this day and age. I love my friend dearly and hope I am everything to her that she is to me. We have been there for each other… through thick and thin. I cannot imagine life without having known her all these years.
I love that my friends don’t wait for me always to set up our lunch dates (although with the quarantine those are not happening). We used to regularly meet once a month. Now we text or e-mail and they both are so non-judgmental…we don’t talk religion or politics even though they know we have some differences there. They do know I pray for them.